X-Future: The Second Generation Begins
by LycoRogue
Summary: Chaos never ceases at the Xavier Institute, as the next generation of students can easily demonstrate. The fact that most of their parents - X-Men themselves - are the faculty just makes life even more interesting. Set 30yrs after the conclusion of the X-Men: Evolution cartoon. A "high school teen drama" with powers. Could probably be K , but T rating just to be on the safe side
1. Prologue - The History

****A/N: I was going to place this under X-Men: Evolution fanfiction since that's what birthed this whole thing. However, since all the main characters are OCs I figured it best to just leave it as generic X-Men fanfiction. Anyway, this whole series will be recaps of what goes on in the X-Men role play my husband runs: entitled X-Future.**

**As I stated, the most basic plot of X-Future is "What becomes of the children of the X-Men thirty years after X-Men: Evolution ended?" and so our canon is mostly based on the show. However, elements of the main comic book canon were also bound to seep in, with some exclusions and manipulations. We even threw in some of our own major events. Because of this, we took the Marvel encoding of X-Men: Evolution (Earth-11052) and Mainstream Comic (Earth-616) and created our own for X-Future (Earth-11616).**

**So, to ease everyone in to the world of 11616, I present to you now the history of all the major players throughout the thirty years between X-Men: Evolution and X-Future.**

**_Legal Stuff: X-Men is the property of Marvel Comics and each individual original character remains the intellectual property of the players that created them.**_**

* * *

Welcome to the future.

It's been thirty years after the events depicted in X-Men: Evolution. A new generation of students is at the Xavier Institute, but not everything is how you remembered it.

After defeating Apocalypse, the X-Men's number one enemy Magneto dismantled his Acolytes. He instead brought them in to the Brotherhood of Mutants in hopes that they would demonstrate the leadership and competence his son Quicksilver and the other Brotherhood members desperately needed in order to become worthy warriors for Magneto's cause. His cause being the mutant domination over humanity.

Both Colossus and Gambit saw the error of Magneto's ways after teaming up with the X-Men to thwart Apocalyse's World Domination threat. Instead of joining the Brotherhood with Pyro, Sabretooth, and Mastermind, Colossus joined the X-Men in their attempt to convince humanity to peacefully co-exist with mutants. Within the year he was able to bring his eight-year-old sister Illyana over from Russia in order to train at the institute.

Gambit, on the other hand, was unsure what to do with himself. He knew he didn't believe in Magneto's agenda any longer; or at least his way of achieving it. However, he also wasn't sure he was ready to "go straight" by joining the X-Men. He had severed ties with his father and the Thieves Guild, and knew he wanted to avoid going back there. The nineteen-year-old ended up wandering the globe for about two years, but always made it back to New York at least once every couple of months in order to check in on Rogue.

The girl had grown from simply someone he was attracted to and wanted to use in to someone who truly amazed him. He had fallen in love with her, and knew there could never be anyone else as long as she walked the Earth. It was because of his desire to be with her that he finally hung up his nomadic ways and officially joined the X-Men two years after abandoning the Acolytes. He and Rogue had an odd courtship of him attempting to woo her, and she avoiding his advances – even though she was in love with him too – simply because they could never have a physical relationship with her powers.

Not only did Colossus and Gambit abandon the Acolytes, but Lance "Avalanche" Alvers also questioned Magneto's ways and left the Brotherhood in favor of trying to join the X-Men for a second time. Much like Gambit, Lance's decision to join the X-Men was largely influenced by his desire to be with the woman he loved: Kitty Pryde.

Even though Lance had shown his gallantness on multiple occasions while battling against the X-Men, and truly showed his worth while battling against Apocalypse, Scott still had his concerns. Lance had tried to join the X-Men once before and it didn't work out then. Cyclops doubted it would go any different this second try. After a few months, Lance again caved under the constant prejudice and ridicule from Scott. In a case of history repeating itself, Avalanche again abandoned the X-Men; this time also abandoning his girlfriend Kitty when she refused to leave the Institute with him.

Kitty gave up on trying to rehabilitate Lance after that. Despite his attempts to keep up a romance with her, she no longer desired to be with him. They had limited interaction in school over the next year and when Lance graduated he quickly dropped all contact. No one has a clue where he has been over the past three decades.

Laura – or as she's better known, X-23 – returned to the Xavier Institute shortly after the Apocalypse battle in order to spend the rest of her teen years with Logan, who was part father and part older brother to his clone. After Gambit joined the X-Men, a time traveler named Bishop arrived from an apocalyptic future where mutant genocide and concentration camps are prominent. While on his mission to the past to try to prevent his present from happening, he and Laura got close. They had a short romance before they both realized he didn't quite fit in the modern era. He was needed back in his own time. The two parted on good terms; although Logan had a few choice words for the time traveler. Before Laura's 19th birthday she gave birth to their son, whom she named after his father: Lucas. It was hard to determine if Logan was excited or displeased by the birth of his nephew/grandson (depending on how one considers Wolverine's relationship with his clone) considering how young Laura still was. He quickly took charge as the patriarch of his family and helped Laura raise Lucas.

A year later, on Jean Grey's twenty-second birthday, her powers went horribly array as they once again advanced far faster than she could handle. When Professor Xavier used his own telepathic abilities to try to control Jean's he discovered that it wasn't simply her powers evolving. A cosmic entity that called itself the Phoenix Force had chosen Jean as its host due to her superior abilities and unlimited potential.

Shortly after, an alien race known as the Shi'ar arrived on Earth; knowing that Jean was the manifestation of the Phoenix. They begged for her help to protect the M'Kraan Crystal: a stone that was the nexus of all realities. Its destruction would mean the end of everything. Jean agreed to help, along with a small group of X-Men. On their journeys, Kitty met up with an alien race that resembled cat-sized dragons. One in particular became very attached and devoted to Shadowcat. It wished to follow her back to Earth and has remained as her trusted companion. She named him Lockheed, after the company that built the X-Men's jet Blackbird. Scott also met up with a space pirate named Corsair, who ended up being his alien-abducted father whom Scott had long-thought died in the plane crash that jumpstarted his optic blast mutant power.

After Jean saved the M'Kraan and returned back to Earth, the Phoenix –never before knowing the sensation of human feelings – was quickly corrupted by emotions. The corrupted Phoenix took over control of Jean's body and called itself the Dark Phoenix. She wrecked havoc not only on Earth, but across the universe, including devouring a star and one of its inhabited planets. Seeing this corruption, the Shi'ar returned, but this time to destroy the Dark Phoenix; with Jean as collateral damage.

The Phoenix Force witnessed the X-Men valiantly fighting to spare Jean's life and realized its wrong-doings. Moved by the love Jean's friends had for her, the Phoenix Force abandoned Jean as a host. Having his true Jean Grey back, Scott took no time to propose to her. Not even a year after Jean's near-execution due to the Phoenix - at the age of twenty-five - Jean and Scott wed.

As he aged, Jamie "Multiple Man" Madrox became less and less of an awkward teenager, but he never seemed to shake that semi-dorky, All-American Boy Scout attitude. His kindness and minor naiveté won over his fellow New Mutants recruit Amara "Magma" Aquilla. He escorted Amara to Scott and Jean's wedding and the two continued dating after that.

A year later a mysterious woman who bore the Phoenix Force arrived at the institute; causing all of the X-Men to be on edge. It kept a while for the woman to convince the X-Men that, unlike Jean, she had full control of the Phoenix. She introduced herself as Rachel Summers; Scott and Jean's daughter from an alternate reality. Rachel's version of Jean was not simply a host for the Phoenix Force, but she had completely merged with it. In doing so, the Phoenix was no longer capable of being corrupted by emotions and became inheritable, just like any gene. Rachel's ability to use the Phoenix Force's power was just as much a mutant manifestation as her telepathy – which she also inherited from her mother. Scott was still weary of this supposed child of his, but Rachel became a member of the Xavier Institute's faculty as a Junior Professor.

Over the same eight years that had passed since destroying Apocalypse, Storm, who was only in her early twenties when she started teaching at the institute, grew close to young Kurt Wagner – aka Nightcrawler. While Kurt was a student they didn't explore their budding feelings, however, upon Nightcrawler's graduation the two finally started dating. A few months after Rachel joined the X-Men Ororo and Kurt got married.

Two years later, a full decade after their battle with Apocalypse, the X-Men witnessed one of the greatest tragedies they would ever know. The event would forever be known among them as The Reaping.

Magneto had come up with another scheme to once and for all assert mutant domination upon the world; a dangerous plot he was driven toward by his son Quicksilver. The Master of Magnetism had come across a mysterious artifact that had the ability to absorb the life force of a mutant and fire out a blast of energy that seemed to disintegrate all living matter within the blast zone. With this powerful weapon in his possession, Magneto then kidnapped Rogue as the power source for the artifact. Magneto was able to convince Juggernaut to aid him with little more than the promise of revenge against Cain's half-brother Charles Xavier.

Having all his pawns set up, Magneto readied to take his New Brotherhood to Washington D.C. for the attack. Wanda begged him to not follow through with the plan, pointing out the number of innocents – both human and mutant – that would perish. Magneto coldly responded that sacrifices were necessary to "further the cause". Magneto planned for the entirety of the American government to be wiped out in the attack so he could then fill the governmental void as a sovereign; reigning over the Free World as a benevolent king to all mutants, and a strict dictator over homo-sapiens. Horrified by how much her father had been corrupted over the years, Wanda refused to participate and left the Brotherhood with her younger sister Polaris – who had lived a sheltered life with her father, but never joined the Brotherhood.

Undeterred, Magneto marched on the Capital with the rest of his New Brotherhood, which consisted of: his former Acolytes Pyro, Sabretooth, and Mastermind, his son Quicksilver, Pietro's fellow original Brotherhood member Blob, as well as three newer members. These consisted of Burner as a second pyrokinetic, a teleporter named Vanisher, and Paralyzer who could generate powerful fields of bio-electromagnetic energy. Rogue was forced to join the D.C. raid by Juggernaut.

Having discovered Magneto's plan, the X-Men sent a team to intercept the attack. Hoping to be able to reason with his former friend, Xavier lead the team himself, bringing with him Cyclops, Jean Grey, Gambit, Shadowcat, Iceman, and Wolverine.

The X-Men and New Brotherhood engaged in a fierce battle, but no one was able to spot either Juggernaut or Rogue. Magneto had forced Rogue to absorb the majority of Juggernaut's life force, leaving him just enough to survive the contact with her; although he was left unconscious. Having absorbed the life force of such a powerful mutant overwhelmed Rogue and she too fell in to a coma. As his enemies were distracted in battle, Magneto flew to the hub of the city. The fighting almost instantly stopped as soon as he was seen hovering high above the D.C. landscape with an unconscious Rogue and a weird device in his arms. The artifact was a strange orb with three staff-like protrusions. Before anyone could react, Magneto touched one of the staffs to Rogue's forehead; completely draining her Juggernaut-empowered life force as the device powered up. When Magneto dropped Rogue's limp body, Gambit's rage forced him to lose control. He grappled his opponent Mastermind and charged the villain's entire body with kinetic energy before hurling him towards Vanisher. The bald mutant teleported away at the last second before Mastermind detonated. While Gambit sprinted to the falling Rogue's side, Magneto was distracted enough by his ally exploding for Jean to levitate herself and Xavier up to reason with him.

Despite Xavier's pleas to abandon his plan, Magneto fired the artifact at the city. Without hesitation, Jean and Xavier focused all of their power in to containing the blast, unfortunately trapping the three of them inside the miniscule blast zone. All eyes were on the sky as Magneto, Xavier, and Jean disintegrated within seconds of the device going off. A moment later, Vanisher teleported the surviving Brotherhood members away.

Shadowcat caught up with Gambit as he let out a horrid wail. Rogue lay limp in his arms and everyone knew that she was gone forever. Kitty attempted to sooth the Cajun as he cradled his lost love; giving her their first and last kiss. Having found the artifact that Magneto weaponized, Cyclops – also grieving the loss of his love – placed a hand on Remy's shoulder. They knew the artifact needed to be destroyed and so Gambit charged up the device before throwing it in the air. Just as it exploded, Cyclops hit the shrapnel with a fully-powered optic blast.

The surviving X-Men returned to the mansion with heavy hearts and only Rogue's body to bury. There was a service, and the Memorial Fountain – which had a statue depiction of Rogue, Xavier, and Jean atop it – was placed at the entrance of the institute. In honor and memory of her mother, Rachel changed her last name from Summers to Grey.

Within the shadow of The Reaping's tragedy, some cause for celebration arouse. Ororo soon after announced her pregnancy and as the first anniversary of The Reaping approached she gave birth to her son Luke. He bore the same demonic appearance as his father, but with jet-black fur instead of his father's blue. Although the couple was elated with their new family, their joy wouldn't last long. A mere four months after Luke's birth Storm heard concern about her native Africa.

Reports of natural disasters started popping up all over Storm's native continent, concentrated mostly in Egypt. Worried about her homeland, she led a team of x-men consisting of Colossus, the British mutant Psylocke, and Magneto's youngest daughter Polaris. None of the squad members seem to remember what happened while on their journeys, but they do assume there was a massive fight where they were all knocked out. When they awoke they discovered that Storm was missing and that they had no recollection of what occurred. In fact, the only reason they had to believe they were even in a fight – aside from waking up on the ground – was the extensive damage to the village and the injuries they had sustained.

The trio spent nearly a week searching for their team leader, but the only traces of Storm were the tattered remains of her cloak and the locket Nightcrawler gave her on the day Luke was born. With the natural disasters ceasing and no further leads on Ororo's whereabouts, the squad returned to the mansion with heavy hearts.

Not believing his wife was truly gone, Nightcrawler lead a team in an attempt to find out what happened to Storm. His search party team consisted of Psylocke – who felt terribly that she wasn't able to help Storm while in Africa – and Spyke – Kurt's former classmate – who returned from the hidden clan of mutants known as the Morlocks. Spyke refused to re-join the X-Men officially, but he was just as determined as Nightcrawler to find answers about his aunt's disappearance. Although Kurt trusted his son being raised at the institute, he couldn't bear to be away from his only remaining family for terribly too long. He proceeded to spend half of his time at the institute raising Luke and the other half checking in on Spyke and Psylocke in their hunt for Storm.

The stress of trying to track down Ororo and raising Luke was beginning to be too much for Nightcrawler. A new X-Man, a woman named Alison Blaire, decided to help ease Kurt's burden. Her ability to transform sound in to light seemed to sooth the baby, and so she would routinely calm the child by singing to him and creating mini light shows. Kurt appreciated the help, and saw how much Luke seemed to love Dazzler. The two became close as the months passed, and in one night of weakness the two got together. The next morning Kurt felt nauseous with guilt over seemingly giving up on the hope that his wife was still alive. The two decided it was best that they didn't explore their romantic feelings any longer; however Dazzler did discover she was pregnant. About a year after the squad was attacked in Africa, William was born. Unlike his half-brother, William did not take on his father's physical mutation, although he did appear to be a bit more flexible than the average human.

The same year Storm was abducted yet another tragedy struck. Eight-year-old Lucas first demonstrated his mutant powers. Realizing that he mostly inherited her powers, Laura feared that both Hydra – who had created her in the first place – and the revived Weapon X program – who gave Wolverine his adamantium skeleton – would abduct her son. Even with Logan swearing to keep his family safe, Laura was always nervous of the sadistic organizations finding them and experimenting on her son. Logan awoke one morning to discover that Laura had whisked Lucas away in the middle of the night. The two went on the run for the next five years.

~x~x~x~

After The Reaping and all ties were severed between Wanda and Pietro, Wanda spent the next year and a half trying to do whatever she could to make up for her family's wrong-doings. Although her sister Polaris had decided to join the X-Men after their father's death, Wanda didn't feel comfortable doing the same after their long history of battling against each other. She acted as an independent, much like Warren "Angel" Worthington III had done in the past.

Seeing her attempt to make amends, as well as her vast potential, Nick Fury and the Avengers extended her an invitation to join. She happily accepted. That night, while out drinking and celebrating, she came across her old Brotherhood teammate Toad. He too didn't want any part in the plot Magneto had that eventually lead to The Reaping. Unbeknownst to Scarlet Witch, Todd had also abandoned the Brotherhood after the tragedy. Although she never did enjoy Toad's company, Wanda eventually agreed to have a few more drinks with her former ally. Throughout the night Toad admitted to falling in love with Wanda the moment he saw her, and that he still did love her.

Drunk and feeling good about joining the Avengers, as well as for the first time truly seeing how sweet Todd could be, Wanda agreed to spend the night with him. Elated and thinking he finally had a chance to have everything he ever wanted; the diluted Toad woke up the next morning and instantly went to the Xavier Institute. Wanting to prove to Wanda that he could "go straight", and to make sure he had a job to help provide for the two of them, Toad begged Wolverine – who had taken over as the Headmaster of the Institute – to give him a chance. Logan refused to let Toad become an X-Man, but he did offer a job as the school janitor. Toad accepted and blissfully went back to Wanda's to tell her the great news.

Now sobered up, she told him that she was indeed proud of him, but refused to have any further romantic contact with him. She regretted the night they already had together and didn't wish to pursue it any further. Todd was heartbroken and nearly gave up on his new job, but quickly reasoned with himself that if he held down the job for a few years – maybe even be able to join the X-Men – that perhaps Wanda would change her mind and give him another try.

Nearly two decades later and Toad is still simply the school's janitor. Wanda still wants little to nothing to do with him. Yet, he still holds his flame for his one-true-love. The main reason he never gave up was that about a month in to her Avengers career Scarlet Witch discovered that she was pregnant. Her and Todd's daughter Joyce was born with her father's flexibility, extendable tongue, and an odd skin mutation that gave her a bright green tint. Wanda kept Joyce in her custody and the girl soon learned to resent her father, despite his constant attempts at spoiling his beloved baby girl. But Todd's faith marches on that one day he'll win the love of both Wanda and their daughter.

~x~x~x~

When Magneto had kidnapped Rogue, Xavier personally went to Emma Frost to plea for her assistance in finding the abducted X-Man. Over the near decade of battling against him as a member of the Hellfire Club, Emma had grown to greatly respect Xavier. Her decision was an easy one. She quickly agreed to assist the X-Men in their plight since she had become tired of the Club's illegal activities and harsh methods anyway. Leaving her title of "White Queen" behind, Emma did all she could to find Rogue and prevent Magneto from executing his latest plot. Although The Reaping still occurred, Scott did extend an invitation for Emma to become an official X-Man as thank you for her help. She agreed and soon became close to fellow X-Man Bobby "Iceman" Drake.

~x~x~x~

Twelve years after joining the X-Men, Colossus began to realize that the school was quickly becoming over crowded, and there were still tons of new mutants being discovered by Rachel and Emma daily. For his thirtieth birthday, the X-Men gifted Piotr enough start-up cash to open up another branch of the school. He and fellow X-Man Jubilee travelled to California to open up the Colossus Academy on the old Alcatraz Island. The duo was barely on the West Coast four months before returning home to join in on the celebration of Emma and Bobby's nuptials.

~x~x~x~

Two other X-Men that got close over the years were Gambit and Kitty. When Xavier died, he had willed control of both the mansion and the X-Men to Wolverine and Shadowcat. The two took over as the headmaster and headmistress of the institute. As part of her new duties as leader, Kitty held group grief counseling. While the meetings did seem to help most of Xavier's former students, two in particular shied away from the sessions. Cyclops fell farther and farther in to a depression after becoming widowered; until he finally left the X-Men all together. Gambit, on the other hand, spent most of his time alone on the mansion's basketball courts, or finally getting back in touch with his father and the Thieves Guild. Concerned and nervous about losing yet another teammate, Kitty extended as much help as she could to the Cajun as they shared in their immense grief over losing Rogue – who was Kitty's best friend. The two became closer, and in return for her friendship, Gambit tried cheering Kitty up whenever the stress of running the Xavier Institute became too much.

Over the next three years their friendship blossomed in to a romance. Gambit realized that he could indeed love someone other than Rogue; although his heart would always hold a place for his Anna Marie. A year after Bobby and Emma got married, Kitty and Remy followed suit. Kitty then discovered that one of Remy's wedding gifts to her – unintentionally – was a son. Nine months later they had Chayse; nearly a year after Emma gave birth to Bobby's son Nicholas. The two boys were both raised at the institute and became fast friends as well as surrogate brothers.

~x~x~x~

While back on the East Coast to witness Gambit and Shadowcat's wedding, Jubilee met up with Weapon X member Chris "Maverick" Nord. The two had a weekend fling before she returned to the Colossus Academy. Shortly after, she realized she was pregnant, but didn't bother trying to track down her son's father. Instead, she raised Alister by herself at the academy with some help from her good friend Piotr; barely telling Alister anything about Chris.

Later that same year the X-Men all journeyed down to Amara's native Brazil. Along the sandy coastline Magma and Multiple Man married after a long, six-year courtship. Unlike many of their fellow X-Men, the couple didn't return to the institute. Although they remained on the official roster of active members, they bought a gorgeous home on Long Island and prepared for life as a mostly-normal, married couple. Because there were so many other readily-available X-Men, the two were rarely called upon, and they enjoyed their finally-quiet lives. After two years, Amara gave birth to a little girl that looked nearly identical to her. Jamie instantly started to spoil his little Amelia; foreshadowing his future fate of almost never leaving his precious Lia's side.

~x~x~x~

After the near-devastation of The Reaping, Warren decided that he could no longer live on the sidelines and in fear of his father's reaction to his joining the Mutant Cause. He came to Wolverine and Shadowcat in request to become a full-fledged member of the X-Men. The duo welcomed Angel with open arms.

Being disowned by his father stung more than Warren realized, and he again withdrew from society. Rachel Grey consoled him, and helped him find his own self-worth outside how his father and the world saw him. The two of them started dating. After a few months, the two amicably parted ways, but not before Rachel became pregnant with their daughter Annika. Although Angel and Phoenix never reconnected romantically, they still raised Annika at the institute as a happy family.

~x~x~x~

Another former Acolyte who decided to abandon the Brotherhood was Sabretooth. After seeing the devastation of The Reaping, Sabretooth realized that Magneto's agenda and tactics were no longer his style. His only remaining desire was to defeat Wolverine in battle, and so he left for the Canadian wilderness. Two years later he came across Boom-Boom; a young mutant who started off with the X-Men, joined the Brotherhood for a brief time while she was in high school, and then abandoned both groups right around the time Apocalypse attacked. Tabitha had kept her laze fair attitude and instantly connected with the feral ruggedness of Sabretooth.

Their courtship was brief, but it resulted in Boom-Boom's first child. Both of Hunter's parents kept in touch, and with no ill-will towards the other. Once he started school the duo agreed on joint custody of their boy. Hunter would spend the school year with his mother, but all of his breaks would be spent camping in the Canadian wilderness with Sabretooth. The arrangement lasted for about fourteen years.

Boom-Boom did have another son three years after Hunter; this time a result of a random drunken hook-up. Although Tabitha had matured over the years, being a single mother raising a mildly-feral child (thanks to Sabretooth's genes) overwhelmed her at points. On one of these nights, she had shipped Hunter off to his father for a weekend and went on a binder. That's when she ran in to Wade "Deadpool" Wilson. His lady-killer charm actually worked on the drunken Boom-Boom, and the resulting night lead towards Draco's birth.

Although Hunter wasn't overly excited to find out that his mother was with someone other than his father, he still madly loved his kid brother and was insanely protective of his family. He hated having to leave the two of them alone whenever he went camping with Sabretooth, but he loved returning and having long conversations with Draco about what they did over the school break.

~x~x~x~

One last Brotherhood member who deserted Magneto's cause after The Reaping was the mutant's former second-in-command Mystique. She and Magneto were already on rocky terms after he abandoned her following the explosion of Asteroid M, and then again when she was frozen in stone after releasing Apocalypse. However, she believed that Xavier's methods were too gentle, and had rejoined the Brotherhood for a third time. There was little to no loyalty towards Magento in her decision, simply a true faith in his methods.

However, she couldn't agree with the tactics Magneto was going to use in Washington D.C., claiming the sacrifice of innocents and political allies outnumbered the destruction of their enemies. Magneto refused to listen to her, and so she walked out on the Brotherhood once more. After The Reaping she was hesitant to return to the organization a fourth time. She was infuriated that her foster daughter Rogue was used as the sacrificial power source, and if Magneto hadn't died during the attack she was certain to kill him herself. However, she and Pyro had started up a romance a few months prior and she missed him dearly (although, she did question his blind following of Magneto's plan). After his father's death, Pietro took up the mantle of leading the Brotherhood, but some of the senior members questioned the boy's leadership. Pyro stepped up as a co-leader of the group. With her lover and her former student being the ones in charge of the Brotherhood, Mystique hoped the organization's methods would change and wearily re-joined one last time.

A few years passed and neither Quicksilver nor Pyro seemed to try to switch off of Magneto's master plans. When Mystique discovered she was pregnant she realized she couldn't continue this route to better the Mutant Cause. Without so much as a Dear John letter, Mystique disappeared in the night. When she gave birth to Devon she still feared her reputation would have the Brotherhood, the X-Men, and the anti-mutant terrorists The Purifiers all after her; threatening the life of her baby. With a heavy heart and painful memories of having to give up Nightcrawler nearly thirty years prior, Mystique dropped Devon off upon the steps of the Cathedral Basilica of St. James. Before leaving the Cathedral, she prayed that he would receive a better life than she could give him. She then fled down to Brazil in hopes of starting over.

Two years of living in Brazil under a new alias and claiming to be human, Mystique came across a former student of the Xavier Institute. Roberto "Sunspot" da Costa quickly fell for Mystique without having any inkling that she was one of his former foes. They had a whirl-wind romance that included her having a second son. Feeling in a much better place than she did three years prior, Mystique kept Filipe, finally able to indulge her maternal instincts. She and Sunspot raised their son for a few years before they parted ways. Mystique happily continued her little family with Filipe, making sure he never went down the same path she did. She taught him that violence wasn't a solution; instead, he should find non-violent ways to deal with his problems and always consider the consequence of his actions.

~x~x~x~

Throughout her adolescent years, Illyana Rasputin grew in to her powers as Magik. However, her skill and potential in regards to sorcery piqued the interest of some denizens of an alternate plane known as Limbo. She was kidnapped and trapped in this demon-infested world. It kept a while for the X-Men to be able to find a way to rescue her. In the meantime, she survived by learning how to tap in to the natural magical essence of Limbo. By the time the X-Men reached her, Illyana had usurped her captors and took over as the leader of Limbo.

She returned to Earth, but as months ticked by she became frustrated that on her native plane her sorcery was so much harder for her to wield. Shortly before The Reaping, on Magik's eighteenth birthday, one of her Limbo subjects tracked her down and begged for her return to squash a coup her former captors hoped would return them to rule. Colossus begged for his kid sister to stay with the X-Men, but she informed her brother that it was her duty now to protect the Limbo inhabitants. With a simple kiss goodbye, she followed her servant back in to the alternate plane.

While back in Limbo, Illyana felt herself become stronger as her sorcery became an easy extension of her own will. Once the rebellion was stopped she returned to Earth, rejuvenated and feeling better than she had in months. Her only sorrow was not being able to say goodbye to the ones lost during The Reaping.

Once home, Magik discovered her sorcery was again draining for her to use. Over the course of the year she would become weak after wielding it for an extended period of time. When she was again called upon to help save her Limbo denizens her sorcery had become so tasking that any use of it caused her to faint. Colossus was concerned that she wouldn't be able to defend her throne on her own this time and sent a small team of X-Men with her. However, once back on her alternate plane, Illyana's powers became effortless yet again. Her clan of X-Men was barely needed as she easily squashed the uprising.

They returned to the mansion victorious and with great tales of Illyana's brilliant leadership. Magik was rewarded by continuing as her group's squad leader. Before the end of the year she had to give up her prized position when she once more became too weak to wield her sorcery. The drain on her lifeforce whenever she used her powers became so great that she physically became frail.

Over the next three years the cycle repeated. Magik would be called back to Limbo where she would regain strength and her sorcery would become easier and more powerful. However, the more she used her powers in Limbo, the faster her sorcery would drain her while back on Earth. Eventually, it didn't even take a month after returning for Magik to become so frail and ill that she was nearly bedridden by her weakened state. Concerned for his sister, Colossus begged for Beast to watch over her and find out what was wrong. He also forbade Illyana from returning to Limbo, fearing it was poisoning her. Sadly, Piotr was right about the poisoning, but not in the way he thought. Both Magik and Beast realized that she had grown so dependent on using the natural magic aura of Limbo to power her sorcery, that the massive magic void in Earth's atmosphere was what was draining her. It was actually Limbo that was keeping her alive, not what was killing her.

With a heavy heart, but his sister near death, Piotr agreed to let his sister permanently live in the realm of Limbo. A small team of X-Men accompanied Colossus in escorting his sister to her palace. As soon as they passed in to the Otherworld Illyana began to recover, feeling more fit than any of them by the time they departed for home three days later.

Still worried about his sister being alone and unprotected in Limbo, Piotr pleaded with Beast to travel in to Limbo in order to help Illyana build a proper stronghold that would never fall to the rebels who still rose up on occasion in attempt to expel Magik from their lands. Always excited to participate in knowledge-advancing opportunities, Hank easily accepted the offer. Although she was upset that her brother still didn't trust that she was a strong and competent leader, Magik welcomed the company of her former teacher.

While helping her build a safe haven in Limbo the two transitioned from Teacher-Student to colleagues to friends and eventually to lovers. However, their relationship wasn't the only thing to suffer a transformation. The natural magic and chaos that flowed through the very essence of Limbo made Hank more and more feral with each passing day. Shortly after realizing she was pregnant, Magik had to fight her lover, who abruptly broke in to an animalistic rage. Her only means of stopping Beast's frenzy was to create one of her stepping discs in order to teleport him back to Earth. Much like her strength returning while in Limbo, Beast almost instantly regained his humanity while back on his native plane.

Fearful of completely losing control of himself, with a heavy heart Hank swore to never return to Limbo. It saddened Magik to lose her potential consort and father of her child, but she understood. Unfortunately, she could no longer survive outside of Limbo for more than a few days, and so their romance reluctantly ended.

Magik was in Limbo when she gave birth to their daughter Sasha. Knowing how weak she, a non-native, became outside of Limbo, Illyana feared her Limbo-born daughter would not survive on Earth, and decided to raise the child alone. Still in love with Hank, and wanting their daughter to have no ill-will against her father, Magik made sure to tell Sasha great tales of Beast, as well as explain the noble reason why he had to stay away from his family as much as it pained him to do so.

~x~x~x~

Over the course of the four years Spyke and Psylocke spent searching for Storm the two got extremely close. After a year of constantly traveling together on their mission, they started dating. Their relationship accumulated in the birth of their son Roscoe.

Having not found any new clues on Storm's whereabouts over their four year mission and courtship, once Psylocke became too pregnant to continue on, the search team was dismantled; much to Nightcrawler's dismay. Once Roscoe was born the duo parted ways. While Elizabeth wanted to keep Roscoe in Britain where he could receive a better education, Evan wished to finally return to his home in the United States. They agreed to raise their son in England, but Evan would watch Roscoe over school breaks. Both parents spoiled the boy. Psylocke's family was wealthy and able to always provide for Roscoe so he'd never want, but he'd have to be constantly learning or training his fighting skills; meanwhile, Spyke would allow his son to indulge in his youth, learning how to do such things as skateboard, play basketball, and that a little rebellion isn't always bad.

~x~x~x~

After five years on the lam with his mother, Lucas Kinney was captured by the Weapon X program. Although she fought gallantly and requested aid from both Wolverine and the X-Men, Laura could do nothing to get near her son. For a year Weapon X – who simply referred to Lucas as "X-24" - tortured the thirteen-year-old with harsh experiments, testing both his powers and body. Laura's resolve never wavered even after her multiple failings. Eventually, she was able to track down and rescue her broken son.

Terrified to discover that her greatest fear of her son becoming a lab rat came true, Laura decided that she couldn't risk anyone getting their hands on Lucas again. Although the alternative was nowhere near ideal – especially considering how hellish it would be for him simply being a mutant – Laura decided Lucas would be safer in the future, being raised by his father. The two said their tear-filled goodbyes before Bishop brought his son eighty years ahead in time.

No longer needing to be on the run, Laura found her way to Colossus' school in California and became a teacher there.

~x~x~x~

The years rolled by without any other major incidents for three years. Then, one night, while terrified by the darkness of his room, Jubiliee's son Alister discovered his ability to create energy globules (or "fireworks") exactly like his mother. Soon after his powers activated, the once-shy eight-year-old became a prankster, using his fireworks to cause mischief for students and teachers alike all over Colossus Academy.

Colossus started off as simply a friend and college of Jubilee's, but when Alister started causing trouble the Russian had to step in as a strict authority figure for the boy. This quickly turned in to a stern father figure that Alister learned to respect and love. Jubilee too learned to love how well Colossus handled her son. The two bonded even more and began dating. A few years later the two married and Alister gladly accepted Piotr as his father.

The same year Alister's powers manifested, so did those of a very powerful mutant in London. At the young age of seven, a girl by the name of Noelle Firada discovered her powers when she began to literally play with her shadow. Her ability to manipulate the shadows – including her ability to give them tangible form – caught the interest of the Hellfire Club. Wolverine and Shadowcat managed to have the X-Men intercept the Club's attempts to abduct the girl, but it was Noelle who ended up the savior of the day.

Due to how powerful the girl was, the X-Men sent a small squad in to Limbo to request Magik for her assistance. Having the squad stay in Limbo as guardians of five-year-old Sasha, Magik agreed to cross back over to Earth. However, she had been away from her native realm for so long that the drain on her was faster than anticipated. Illyana fell victim to one of the Club's attackers, only to be saved by young Noelle. The girl physically grabbed the assailant's shadow, tripping the villain and allowing Illyana enough time to escape. Having defeated the intended kidnappers, Magik and her small group of X-Men convinced Noelle to come with them to the United States and learn to train her powers in the protection of the Colossus Academy. After being widowered two years prior, Noelle's father lost all drive to truly raise his daughter, therefore making both of their decisions easy. Noelle quickly settled in to her new home in California.

~x~x~x~

Once again three years more-or-less quietly passed before yet another tragedy befell the X-Men. Twelve years after the unexplained disappearance of Storm, similar reports of natural disasters cropped up around Brazil. Unusual seismic activities destroyed large portions of Magma's homeland and she was determined to find out what was wrong. Nervous about Amara heading out alone, Jamie convinced his wife to take along their former classmate Cannonball as well as a new recruit: a Spanish mutant codenamed Empath. Jamie also insisted in accompanying her, but she reminded him that doing so would leave seven-year-old Lia alone. Reluctantly, Jamie settled for sending one of his Dupes with Amara as she journeyed to Brazil.

In a nearly identical manner as the Africa Team lead by Storm, Magma's squad was attacked. When Empath and Cannonball awoke they found the Dupe killed and Magma inexplicably gone. As with the mission in Africa, once Amara vanished the natural disasters ceased. The men spent the better part of the next week trying to find any trace of their lost leader before returning to the Institute.

Using the memories that flooded his mind after his Dupe was killed; Jamie left his daughter in the care of another Dupe and headed down to Brazil in his own search for answers. Much like with Nightcrawler, Multiple Man hated the idea of being away from his only remaining family, even if it were to find the love of his life. After a month of fruitlessly searching Brazil, his longing to hold Lia in his actual arms became too great and he reluctantly went home to his daughter. However, he vowed to find out what happened to his wife, and every year around the anniversary of her disappearance he would spend two weeks in Brazil trying to find any clues.

Fearing losing the most important thing remaining in his life, Jamie never again left Lia's side. Whenever Jamie had to go to work or on a mission he made sure to leave her in the care of one of his Dupes. Even a simple trip to the grocery store required a Dupe guardian. Although she felt smothered, Lia grew to accept her "multiple dads".

~x~x~x~

The next few years saw the walls of both the Xavier Institute and the Colossus Academy swell with new recruits as the next generation of X-Men saw their powers manifest. Twenty-seven years after the original X-Men defeated Apocalypse; at least six of their children became second-generation students of Charles Xavier's teachings. The fresh blood among the students required the same of the teaching staff.

Luckily, Bishop felt it was a good time to send his son home; feeling he was fully trained. Lucas found his mother as a teacher at Colossus' school, but missed living at the Institute on the East Coast. After a brief, joyful reunion, Lucas left his mother and traveled back to the home he once knew. Kitty, surprised to see how much Lucas had grown, welcomed him with open arms and offered the twenty-four-year-old a job as a professor. Lucas happily accepted the position and soon discovered that nothing brought him more pleasure than helping shape the minds of the next generation of mutants.

Thus starts a new school year at the Xavier Institute, nestled just outside of Bayville in New York State. A new crowd of students have settled in, and more are sure to follow suit. One thing is certain. The lives of these children will never be boring.

* * *

****A/N: Alright, I know it got a bit jumbled in there with the jumping forward and then back in time and such. It's so hard to figure out how to explain what happened in the lives of thirty people all at the same time! Hopefully I didn't lose any of you. Any thoughts? Including critiques on an easier way to organize the above information so it flows smoother and doesn't need as many "scene breaks". I'd love to hear any constructive criticism because it helps me become a better author for you.**

**And if you're new to my works and wish to find out more, I have a blog that I (attempt to) update every Sunday around noon ET. The link is:**

_The Rogues Scribe. Blogspot. com ******_


	2. The Back-To-School Mixer

****A/N: When I was originally working on this project I was expecting the recaps of the roleplay events to only be roughly 1000 words, tops. However, my novelist-tendencies kicked in majorly. My first attempt turned in to a straight roleplay-to-prose conversion. This attempt is more of a roleplay-to-prose adaptation/summary. I'm having my fantastic beta ChibiSunnie working on helping me condense some more so that the recap ends up as just that: a recap. Think something along the lines of the "What you missed last time" montages they open TV show episodes with, and you'll get more-or-less what I was attempting to go for. All-in-all, perhaps this "adaptation/summary" version of my writing is the most entertaining way of relaying over the game's storyline (at least, without doing the straight conversion). Perhaps I'll continue to use this version for this anthology/story posting, and use the recaps as I originally intended to write them over at the game's forum as a way of helping players keep track of everything. Let me know your thoughts about that. Thanks.**

**_Legal Stuffs again:_  
_X-Men, Deadpool, and the Xavier Institute are all the property of Marvel Comics. The OCs (Chayse, Nix, Lia, Devon, Joyce, Luke, Lucas, William, Annika, and Draco) are all the intellectual property of the players that created them for our game._****

* * *

**Thirty Years After The Conclusion of the TV Show "X-Men: Evolution"**

* * *

The school year started like this.

Kitty "Shadowcat" LeBeau started up a Back-to-School student mixer to help the returning students and new students settle in and meet. The party started with a bang; literally. Nicholas "Nix" Drake, son of Bobby and Emma, entered the room with a quick "playa" introduction to himself while creating an ice sculpture of a stag. Said sculpture was soon destroyed when Nix's best friend Chayse "Cajun" LeBeau, Kitty and Gambit's son, phased his arm in to the chest and charged a small portion of it. For a brief moment, the ice deer looked like it had a glowing heart, and then it exploded. The bits of ice scattered around the room like a gentle snow storm.

Meanwhile, Chayse used this opportunity to phase in to the floor unnoticed while Nix walked over to one of the new students. Lia, daughter of Multiple Man and Magma, had just arrived at the institute three months earlier, but she was still shy and hadn't spent much time getting to know the year-round students. Nix apologized if his flirtatious attitude made her uneasy, but before he could make any further moves on the girl, Chayse phased through the wall she was leaning against, startling her. Very suavely, Chayse introduced himself and asked Lia to dance. Nix, seeing that he was beat to the punch, laughed and moved over to the refreshment stand.

A little bit awkwardly, Lia introduced herself. She started to blush and her newly-formed powers easily started to overtake her as her emotions ran wild. As lava started to flow under the surface of her skin, her blushing literally glowed. She demonstrated her nervous twitch of playing with a lock of hair while biting her lower lip, but Chayse was sweetly persistent. A moment later, she caved, and Chayse gave a wink to his father who was running the DJ station. Slower music started and the two young teens began dancing.

Over at the refreshment stand another year-round student Draco, son of Deadpool and Boom-Boom, casually watched the festivities. After seeing Chayse blow up the deer, he was itching to blow something up too, even after Shadowcat requested that the powers be kept in check. He formed a throwing dagger in his hand, twirling it between his fingers before Nix walked up to him. With a smirk he held the dagger out to his classmate and asked him if he'd hold it. Nix shook his head and accepted the dagger, instantly freezing it and throwing it up to the ceiling just before it exploded. He jokingly asked why Draco is always trying to blow him up. To which Draco just laughed and replied that he just didn't want to hold the hot dagger any longer.

Their conversation was cut short when Kitty requested for Toad, the janitor, to come in to clean up all the snow on the floor as it was starting to melt. Draco's secondary mutation of partially breaking the fourth-wall still confused him since he still doesn't quite comprehend that there's even a fourth-wall to break. However, as Toad entered the party Draco heard the theme music that always played while Toad was on screen in the X-Men: Evolution cartoon. He's the only one – including Toad – who can hear the music, and it confuses him that no one else seems to know what he's talking about.

As a mini-prank, as well as an offer to help, Nix froze the water on the floor back in to snowflakes as Toad tried to mop it up. With a quick twirl of the snow around Toad, it all drifted out of the open window. Since no one knew what he was talking about, Draco covered up his confusion over Toad's theme song by harassing Toad about someone so unhygienic being ironically in charge of cleaning the campus. The two of them started arguing, and Nix quickly tried to jump in to break up the fight.

Back over on the dance floor, Chayse pulled Lia in close. She's only fourteen and never had a boyfriend before since her father generally chased any interested boys away. So the minimal personal space excited her, but also made her nervous and a bit uncomfortable. Blushing even more, her powers became stronger and she started radiating heat; her Brazilian-tan skin took on a glossy-black sheen to it. With a loud swallow, she closed her eyes to listen carefully to Chayse as he leaned in to her ear.

"Is that your dad?" Lia's eyes bolted back open as Chayse asked her the last question she was expecting. With a quick turn in Chayse's arms, she spotted Jamie walking across the dance floor. The shock quickly quenched her powers and she reverted back to normal; cool body temperature and matted tan skin. Once Jamie reached the couple he instantly whipped out a camera, took a picture, and warned Chayse to be a gentleman. Mortified, Lia asked her father what he was doing at the school. She thought she'd be able to be away from her over-protective parent, finally. Jamie explained that he just couldn't be away from her, and so he signed up to be the new librarian (as well as general Jack-of-all-Trades since he could literally be in multiple places at once) for the school.

Storm and Nightcrawler's son Luke made his entrance by teleporting in to the room. He walked past Nix beside the refreshment table, picked up a drink, continued a few more steps forward, and then teleported himself on to one of the chairs. He casually sat in one of the recliners, sipping his drink, and took in the new recruits to the school.

Seeing the display, Nix chuckled and called Luke a show-off. He then turned to see that Jamie had demonstrated his powers to Chayse by creating two dupes; the three of them staring down the sixteen-year-old. Attempting to help out his best friend, Nix started towards the dance floor. He reassured Jamie that Chayse would never make any advances on Lia, and swore that Chayse "never even touched her butt." To which, Chayse verified that he never looked at "her cute petite butt" even though he thought it was very nice.

Dumbfounded, Lia screamed at her father, telling him how much he was embarrassing her by calling her "princess", taking pictures, and attempting to intimidate yet another boy with the "my three fathers" routine. She then turned on Chayse and yelled that neither he nor Nix was helping matters at all. She then stormed off towards the refreshments.

With a few fake coughs, Chayse pretended that he was "parched" and hurried after Lia. She quickly turned and stopped him with her hand on his chest. She started berating him about how embarrassing everything has been already that evening and how he wasn't making anything better with his comments and chasing after her. She repetitively poked him in the chest as she yelled. He didn't seem to mind. He smirked as she continued to rage, and in a blink he phased so her hand and arm went right through him. He started walking forward, through her, only stopping long enough to steal a quick kiss before phasing through the rest of her and continuing to the refreshments.

A wave of mixed emotions hit Lia as Chayse not only stole their first kiss, but her first kiss ever. She was enraged, shocked, excited, elated, flattered, and a bit violated. The conflicting thoughts again unhinged her control on her powers. Her skin once more grew a black and glossy shine just under the surface, glowing with the bubble of lava running through her veins. Her body heat increased to the point where it radiated out a good two feet away from her.

Nix spotted Lia's transformation as he caught up to Chayse, telling him "Could have told you she was a fiery one." Lia then overheard Nix tell Chayse that "she'll get over it", and ask "who the goons were" (in reference to her dad and his dupes), making her more and more infuriated. With a huff she stormed out the large bank of French doors leading out to the patio. With each stomp she kicked off her shoes so she could feel the earth against her feet (it always calms her to be connected to the ground like that). This time, however, the usually soothing effect ended up empowering her even more. With an angered cry her entire body burst in to flames for a second before cooling in to her powered-up form: obsidian skin, lava eyeballs and blood, and flame hair. With another yell the ground vibrated with a mild earthquake as four softball-sized geysers erupted out of the ground around her.

While Lia was literally fuming outside, Joyce entered the room, making sure her father Toad is no longer around. Years of being with her mother Scarlet Witch had made her embarrassed to be seen anywhere near Toad. Seeing a new face, Nix instantly eased next to the green-skinned eighteen-year-old and introduced himself. As he did so, Luke's half-brother William casually walked in to the room, a large book tucked under his arm. It was blatantly apparent William wasn't planning on doing any actual socializing.

While Joyce was introducing herself Nix smirked. Watching William getting himself a glass of water, Nix nudged Joyce, "Check this out." He froze the entire cup of water so William couldn't drink any of it. Chayse joined in with Joyce and Nix in laughing at the prank. William, on the other hand, doesn't enjoy any form of immaturity and started yelling for Nix to "fix this"; shaking his glass of solid ice at the teen.

As the geysers and Lia both calmed down she stared at her naked body. She muttered about "losing more outfits that way" and sheepishly walked back in to the room, remaining in her obsidian form to keep a hint of modesty. As quickly as she can, she sprinted through the crowded party and up the stairs leading towards the dorm rooms.

Joyce cocked an eyebrow, pointed towards Lia, and asked if she wanted to know. Nix stifled a laugh and nudged Chayse, making sure he also caught sight of Lia. "Waste of a good dress," Nix joked, but then added that "You can have dibs. I can't handle 'em when they run that hot." Joyce shook her head while sarcastically commenting about how classy Nix was. Chayse relayed over to Joyce how Lia got embarrassed, and then excused himself as he chased after Lia in order to apologize. Joyce muttered about how her father could be more embarrassing before walking over to one of the chairs.

William again angrily shook his drink, drawing Nix's attention back to him. Nix sighed about the older teen not having any sense of humor before melting the drink back in to a "perfect mix of water and ice cubes". The two then began arguing. William wanted Nix – and the rest of the student body – to stop with their "shenanigans" and start acting more mature. Nix commented that they're kids and should live it up. William rebutted that he enjoyed his studies, and wandered over towards a chair to continue his reading, meanwhile Nix huffed about how he'd prefer actually doing things than reading about them.

The two continued their banter, whipping insults at each other in between trying to hold conversations with the other students. Nix inquired Joyce about her comment about her father, but she changed the subject by pointing to Deadpool standing outside the window by the refreshment stand. The mercenary-turned-security-guard was tapping on the glass and asking people if there were any chimichangas among the provided food. Nix laughed and tossed a few over to Deadpool as if tossing treats to a dog. Just like a dog, Deadpool proved to be super grateful before being chased back on duty by Iceman.

As Luke and William exchanged odd brotherly pleasantries about their day, Warren "Angel" Worthington and Rachel "Phoenix" Grey's daughter Annika casually entered the party. She seemed bored as she flopped in to a chair, as if both she and William were obligated to attend the party. Seeing his true romantic interest – contrary to the flirting he had done throughout the night – Nix left Joyce's side to welcome Annika to the soiree. She instantly called him out about his flirting, but he assured her that he truly only had eyes for her. He then asked her to smile for him and drew up a bit of punch from his glass. He froze it in to a small rose the size of a quarter. He told her that he and his father had developed a way for them to form ice similar to making glass: Perma-ice. Therefore, the rose would never melt nor shatter. It was a cheesy gesture, but it got the results Nix wanted. Annika smirked before accepting both the rose and the date offer. She then excused herself for the refreshments.

Up in the dorms, Lia finally got rechanged and started to head back to the party, only to run in to Chayse waiting for her in the hallway. She held him out at arm's length and told him not to dare to phase through her again. He agreed, apologized for before, and then asked her to pick a card from his fanned out deck. Hesitantly, she complied. He closed the deck and commented "Don't need to do the rest of the trick to know that you took my ace of hearts." Lia was surprised to see that he was actually right. She smirked at his smoothness and offered him back his card. He told her to keep it as payment for the stolen kiss. Accepting the gift, Lia forgave Chayse and the two went back to the party.

In the meantime, Luke became bored and teleported outside where he surprised Deadpool. Although Luke ignored the insane guard, Deadpool continued yelling and poking at Luke. Joyce, trying to find anyone besides "Cheesy pick-up lines Nix" to talk to, stumbled upon the two battling in a nearby tree. She chuckled and hopped up to a low branch where she and Luke begin to talk. He was surprised she wasn't shocked by his demonic appearance. She responded that she has green skin, grew up in NYC, and has lived her whole life watching the Avengers and Fantastic Four, so a demonic-looking mutant was nothing at this point.

Seeing the party start to die down and everyone pairing up, Nix went out to the courtyard to wait for his date with Annika to start. After dropping the Perma-ice rose off in her room, Annika joined Nix in the courtyard, confused as to why he was smiling at her "like that". She admited she never really understood the point of dating as she found it better to just be closed off. Nix commented that he got what she means, but she still intrigued him and he still wanted to get to know her better. Removing all suave, playboy masks, he calmly and humbly re-introduced himself to the girl he'd been wanting nearly his whole life. She did the same and agreed on a single "actual" date. Having what he desired for so many years, Nix commented about needing to be up early the next morning and bid Annika goodnight with a soft snowfall, the gentle chill of the flakes feeling good with the still warm and humid summer air lingering. Nix went back inside so he could also say goodnight to Chayse and Lia; creating a chilling aura in the room as he passed. Lia snuggled closer to Chayse for warmth, causing Nix to smirk at his intention getting the desired results. Lia, realizing what Nix did, started to playfully yell at him. He smiled and continued up to his room.

Back up in the dorms, Kitty showed the newest recruit to his room. Devon, unknowingly the son of Brotherhood members Mystique and Pyro, was just brought to the institute as an alternative to him being in juvenile detention for another year. Shadowcat informed Devon of the party currently going on downstairs before heading back down herself. Devon debated going before climbing out his second-story window and climbing the brick down to the ground. He snuck around the grounds before opening the window Deadpool previously begged for chimichangas from. With a smirk, he climbed in to the party, startling Lia as she grabbed some food. Chayse, on the other hand, casually welcomed Devon and introduced himself.

Devon introduced himself as well in between furious bites in to the provided food, as if he hadn't eaten in a week. He then asked about the "demon in the tree and [the] crazy dude in spandex poking him." It was explained that the "demon" was Luke and the "crazy dude" was Deadpool. At the combined response from both Chayse and William, coupled with the random chill in the air, Devon mused that it was going to be an interesting stay at this institute.

The shock of Nix getting her to go on a date with him wearing off, Annika zipped back in to the party and begged Lia, her roommate, to help her out with some "girl advice"; quickly feeling embarrassed that a seventeen-year-old had to ask a fourteen-year-old about dating. After quickly introducing herself to Devon and getting a sweet "thank you" back from him, Lia followed Annika off to a corner for a bit more privacy. The older teen poured out her concerns and Lia chuckled at how flustered her roommate had become. She reminded Annika that she had only known Nix for a few months – few hours, officially - whereas Annika has known him nearly her whole life; if anyone would know if he's someone she should date it would be her. Lia then added that she thought that Nix was a pretty decent guy (for a "groan-inducer"). Annika took it all in, calmed herself, and decided the date wasn't such a bad idea after all. She thanked Lia for the advice, and then headed off to work on her motorcycle to help her think things over some more.

As the mixer began to wind down, Chayse casually talked to the Brooklyn born-and-bred Devon, and asked if he was up for some fun. "I need to go 'buy' a dress," he explained; a replacement for the one Lia burned off while pissed off at him and her father. Instantly knowing what Chayse meant by "buying" a dress, Devon smirked and agreed. With a nod Chayse got his dad to "run the secret mission" as long as Kitty didn't find out about their "family outing". As the trio headed for Gambit's car Chayse grabbed Lia's hand and pulled her with the group; ignoring her quandaries of where they were headed.

As the mixer concluded, Devon, Chayse, and Lia all piled in to Gambit's Escort as he drove them in to the city. Having her questions ignored, Lia eventually just stared out the window and watched the scenery pass. Around two in the morning they finally arrived in the city. After a bit more driving through the still bustling streets, they pulled up to a store with multiple "No Muties Allowed" signs pinned up in the windows. With a smile, Gambit turned to his "squad" and declared that "this looks like a good place, no?" He told Devon to stay with him as a lookout while Chayse brought Lia inside to find a dress.

Still confused as to what was going on - and a bit sleepy - Lia dazily allowed Chayse to phase them in to the building and over to the Petite section. The couple spent the next half-hour sifting through the racks, the entire time Lia muttering about how stealing wasn't right. Finally, after finding a dress that she liked, Chayse convinced her that stealing the one dress – which no one would know about – was payback for the bigoted ignorance the owners were displaying by preventing any mutants from shopping there. Reluctantly, she allowed Chayse to phase them back out of the shop without paying for the new dress in her arms.

The kids were all asleep on the drive home; Lia leaning on Chayse's shoulder and his arm wrapped around her. When they finally made it back to the mansion it was already five in the morning. Still tired, the teens all stumbled out of the car, only to be greeted by an angry Logan. Lia tried to hide the dress as Gambit claimed the "mission" was his idea. Wolverine didn't care; he stated that the children were old enough to know better and still needed to be punished. The trio sulked back in to the mansion knowing they all had a "special" detention lined up with Lucas Kinney that weekend.


	3. Nix Loses Control

****A/N: This "chapter" is actually moderately heavy in the "creative licencing" field. The person who played Nix (he has a new character on the boards now) posted a few snippets here and there about what happened and I sort of had to thread them together. To see exactly what I had to work with, check out the A/N at the end.**

**Also, as you can see, I've decided to just go ahead and write more-or-less narratively (it's a word now...) and in pseudo-detail for these recaps. It's more entertaining than a cut and dry "This is a quick list of the important things that happened." I'll save those sorts of recaps for the game itself since the players can then read exactly what happened if they wish.**

**_Legal Stuffs again:_****  
****_X-Men and the Xavier Institute are all the property of Marvel Comics. The OCs (Chayse, Nix, Lia, Devon, Annika, and Filipe) are all the intellectual property of the players that created them for our game._********

* * *

Around five in the morning the day after the Back-to-School Mixer; Chayse, Lia, and Devon slumped up to their dorm rooms after being reprimanded by Logan for the "Secret Mission" Gambit took them on in order to replace the dress Lia destroyed at the party. The three of them sulked through the mansion, ready to end their long day.

Two floors up, Nix was ready to start his day as he began his mother's strict regimen of meditating daily at dawn. Nix was a natural at using the ice-manipulation powers he inherited from his father, and frequently worked with Iceman in an effort for the two of them to advance their powers, as well as "invent" new ways to use them. For example, the perma-ice Nix used to create his shatter- and melt-proof glass-like rose he gifted to Annika.

The telepathy and minor telekinesis Nix inherited from his mother was a lot harder for him to use, and so Emma started him up on daily training sessions. Not only was the strict regimen designed to develop his secondary powers, but also to start disciplining the fun-loving teen who definitely took after his father.

While meditating, Nix fell in to a trance, coating his room in a layer of ice and snow as his own body took on his mother's diamond skin. A haunting glow radiated from his eyes as they turned a solid, bright white. He could hear, sense, and almost see the thoughts and emotions of nearly every person at the institute. He focused on a young girl – new to the school – who was passing Chayse on his way up to his dorm.

Nix took hold of the girl's mind, possessing her and forcing her to greet Chayse. The possession was so strong that it even manipulated the muscles around the girl's vocal cords, giving them a more masculine tone and almost perfectly impersonating Nix's actual voice.

"Caj" Nix excitedly waved down his best friend and roommate, "I think I've got it this time. It's tough to handle-" The girl's voice trailed off as Nix lost his grip on her mind. She slumped against the wall, blood trickled from her nose and ears as she collapsed. Chayse quickly caught her and carried her to the infirmary, confused on what just happened. Meanwhile, back in his room, Nix returned to his own body. As his conscious returned to his own mind his body returned to normal – as did the room temperature – and he instantly passed out on his bed.

After handing the girl off to Dr. Reyes in the infirmary, Chayse finally made it to his room. With a bit of mildly panicked effort, he was able to wake up Nix. Chayse called his roommate an ass for scaring him – finding him unconscious after taking control of the girl – and then asked what happened. Nix quickly explained, but his memory of what happened after forcing the girl to talk was fuzzy. Chayse told Nix about the girl fainting and how she started to bleed. Nix tensed as he was informed about the girl being examined by Reyes in the infirmary. Concerned, Nix raced to check in on her.

He was greeted by Filipe, Mystique and Sunspot's Brazilian son, as he entered the infirmary. With Filipe's ability to heal, he quickly became Dr. Reyes' intern, and was in the middle of filing charts when Nix burst through the door. Filipe reassured Nix that the girl was being taken care of by both Reyes and Emma – who was performing her own surgery: psychic surgery as a means to both heal the girl's psyche and take full control of parts of her body in order to help her heal faster. Nix begged to see her as well. When nothing else seemed to sooth Nix, the Brazilian boy escorted him to the operation room gallery. There Nix finally saw his unintentional victim, a twelve-year-old girl currently in surgery for a brain hemorrhage.

Once the girl was able to move in to the small ICU of the infirmary, Nix and Emma had a much-needed talk. Nix confessed that he was haunted by the girl's terrified thoughts as she lost control of her own body and struggled to fight back against Nix's will. Emma confirmed that the girl's determination to exorcise Nix from her mind put the extreme strain on her body that caused the hemorrhaging, throwing Nix further in to despair. Emma decided that even though he was seventeen and had access to his telepathy for years now, Nix still wasn't ready to train alone if his powers could get so out of hand so rapidly. Nix agreed, freshly determined to hone and control his ability so he'd never harm someone like that girl again.

After their long talk, Emma left Nix to continue the rest of her faculty duties for the day. Nix stayed with the unconscious girl, watching over her, until the class training session in the Danger Room that evening.

* * *

****A/N: Just a little FYI as to what "actually" happened on the boards.  
- Nix wrote about his meditation and taking over the girl's body, her collapsing, and him passing out.  
- Nix then wrote in a separate post: **_"Now there's a younger girl in the infirmary who's been unconscious since [this morning]. She collapsed against a wall and began bleeding from her ears and nose."_**  
- Later Nix continued with **_"I SEE HER FACE, LUCAS! I see it... I hear her thoughts... God... she was so scared... I can't get it out of my head..."_**  
- Nix concluded all the information about the girl with **_"I Gave a 12 year old girl a hemorrhage this morning. If my mother hadn't been here to fix the problem, she'd have died. She's still in a coma in the infirmary, and it's my fault."_

**I proceeded to fill in the blanks until completing the above narrative.****


	4. Danger Room Session: Capture the Flag

****A/N: I had to use a bit of "creative licencing" again. This was the second live-session role play the group did, as well as the first one that we tried doing in a moderately quickened pace since it was mildly action-intensive. On top of everything else, whereas in the Mixer role play the players split up in small groups and pairings - enabling them to more-or-less ignore everything else going on around them - the Danger Room session forced everyone to react to everything everyone else was doing. It was sort of chaotic.**

**Players got lost - one completely left the session due to his internet connection failing - and typing speeds hindered some as well, causing even more chaos as some people took so long to respond to an action that said action was already resolved by the time their character reacted. I had to read a full page's worth of role playing and try to re-organize it to make a more coherent narrative. It was tricky and kept me three days to accomplish.**

**This chapter is also the longest recap - second only to the prologue - at 9pgs and just under 5600 words. This is the longest Danger Room session we have to date at 28pages. However, we do have another session coming up that clocked in at 15pages, and so that's gonna be a long one too.**

**Anyway, not only is this recap so long because of how long the session itself was, but also because I included more dialogue this time around. There are just some passages that were done so well in-game that I just couldn't paraphrase them; they needed to remain intact.**

**So, without further ado, quick legal stuff yet again and then the recap! YAY!**

**_Legal Stuffs again:_****  
****_X-Men, Deadpool, the Danger Room, and the Xavier Institute are all the property of Marvel Comics. The OCs (Chayse, Nix, Lia, Annika, Draco, Luke, Kinney, Azatullah, Penumbra, Marjory, Willow, and Hedge) are all the intellectual property of the players that created them for our game._********

* * *

Nix entered the Danger Room, geared up to work out his anger and stress over injuring the young girl that morning. Flexing the powers he knew he had control over, he instantly lowered the ambient temperature to the point where everyone else could see their breath. As Lia entered she responded to the cold by increasing her own body temperature; radiating a heat of easily 100-degrees in a five-foot radius around her body.

More students slowly trickled in to the group session. First was Draco, then Chayse, followed by Luke, and finally one of the newer recruits walked in. He had been at the institute for only a few weeks and was still too awkward and shy to attempt the mixer the night before. Azatullah was only in the group session for two reasons. One: he knew he needed to utilize the institute's ability to help him train in his newly found powers of earth-particle manipulation (sand, dust, gravel, lose dirt, etc). Two: he was the son of Afghani mutant Dust and the institute's own Headmaster Logan; after finally convincing Sooraya that Azatullah would be able to train easier at the institute there was no way Wolverine would let him miss sessions.

Lucas Kinney was the last to enter the Danger Room. Believing that everyone that was going to attend the session was there, Nix started things off by apologizing to the group about his powers and hurting that girl. He mournfully admitted that he had pushed his training too far, and that he was determined to not let it happen again.

As he finished, Logan and Rachel entered with four new faces. Rachel introduced them as visitors from the Colossus Academy in San Francisco. Leading the new brigade was Noelle, who more frequently went by her codename Penumbra. The British girl who once saved Magik by using her ability to manipulate shadows had blossomed over the years, dressing provocatively; so much that even her uniform had a plunging neckline. Following in behind Penumbra was Willow. She was petite with a bit of a typical "California tan". Her most distinguishing feature was her naturally silver-white hair which made her deep, aquamarine eyes pop. She had blue streaks through her hair and had it cut in an asymmetrical bob. Bashfully slinking in behind the girls was Winston, the young teen was easily recognizable by his green hair and a slight green tint to his tanned skin. The final transfer Marjory towered over the others; the nearly six-foot tall teen had a Mediterranean look with olive-skin and an athletic build.

After the introductions of Penumbra, Will 'o Wisp, Hedge, and Lookout, Rachel announced that the session would be a team versus team "Capture the Flag" with no powers allowed. Slightly shocked about not being able to use his powers, Nix returned the Danger Room to a normal room temperature. Lia quickly followed suit, especially after no longer needing the increased body heat to keep warm. No longer being able to use his powers as means for attack; Nix raced out of the room and returned a moment later with an Inuit warclub in one hand and a harpoon gun in the other. Lia backed away nervously, terrified about what could possibly happen in her first group training session. Luckily, Kinney quickly tapped Nix on the shoulder and confiscated the weapons. Rachel confirmed that there would also be no weapons in the session.

"What?" Nix cried out, "I can't even use those? What the hell am I supposed to do? Talk the problem away? Do I look like Deadpool? Christ!" Resembling a toddler throwing a tantrum Nix plopped hard on to the floor with his legs and arms crossed.

With a huff, Kinney walked up to Nix, arms on his hips as he scolded, "You don't have to talk the problem away, but don't be afraid to use your head."

Enraged, Nix blasted back at his teacher and team leader for the session. He raged about how he had used his head already that day, and because of it a girl was in a coma in the infirmary after suffering a hemorrhage. He confessed that he was now terrified to use his telepathic abilities, and had really hoped that he could have used the training sessions to master his powers. Finding out that he was so restricted, he was completely at a loss and snapped at Kinney.

Lucas barked back at first, but quickly took on a soothing voice as he told Nix that using his head also meant to focus on strategy, thinking things through, and never underestimating the power of a good headbutt.

Agreeing with Nix that the students should be able to use their powers whenever they were capable of being supervised – since training their abilities was the purpose of the school anyway – Rachel decided to recant her earlier decision, allowing powers to be used.

"Still," she added, "No weapons against other students." She then confiscated Draco's khukuri before directing him to join the team of new recruits so it was five versus five. As Draco crossed the room to join his new teammates, a large maze with walls that reached the Danger Room ceiling formed.

Annika raced in to the Danger Room just before her mother left to start the session. With a scolding look, Rachel confirmed that nothing started quite yet and that Annika could be on Kinney's team. With a nod to both Kinney and Logan, Rachel left to start up the session and watch from the observation room.

Draco sadly watched Rachel leave with his khukuri, and then turned to Logan to ask about how he'd be able to use his powers. He formed a kunai in each hand to demonstrate his mutation, and then pointed out that if he couldn't use weapons he wouldn't be able to use his abilities since that was just creating "more pointy things." Logan responded by extending his claws and reminding Draco that he too had "pointy things" as part of his mutation, but that didn't mean he'd use them. With a smirk, Draco replied that Logan's "pointy things" were impressive, but his packed "a bit more bang." With an eye roll, Kinney broke up the banter by extending his own claws before sarcastically calling Logan "grandpa." Azatullah – who had also inherited Logan's claws – slowly backed away from the whole confrontation and looked down at his scarred up knuckles. Being raised as a passivist, he quietly hoped that he wouldn't have to unsheathe his own.

After a brief stare down, both Logan and Lucas turned towards the students and explained the simple rules of the session: the flag is hidden in the maze; find it, capture it, and don't get caught by the other team in the process. The teams then split up as Logan walked his squad to their maze entrance.

Now being able to use the powers he was confident with; Nix shook off his self-doubt and walked over to Annika, calling her "Doll" in the process. She coldly warned him to never do so again and began stretching, showcasing how she was always completely serious while in training.

More of his confidence dwindling, Nix walked over to the corner to brood. Lia whispered to Annika about Nix's guilt over losing control earlier, and then advised that Annika shouldn't be so tough on him. Finally noticing how down he seemed, Annika walked over to Nix and playfully punched him in the shoulder before offering to take him out to dinner after the session so they could talk about his problem.

Lia sighed at her roommate, "You call that not being tough?" Nix just chuckled and reassured Lia that it was alright before taking Annika up on her offer. Before the session officially started, Chayse walked over to his best friend to verify that he'd be up to training. He pointed out that they had one more person on their team, and so it would just even out the teams if Nix wanted to sit out. Lia quickly disputed Chayse's claim that they'd be alright without Nix. Pointing over to the opposing team of new recruits she commented that even with the extra person they may still be outmatched.

The new recruits had all worked together before at Colossus Academy, and so they already had a bit of an advantage over the hodge-podge team Kinney was leading. Penumbra, taking her normal position as squad leader, called out that they should start with Formation A. She then stepped in to the shadows, disappearing. Willow and Marjory agreed. Lookout created a force field around the opposing team, and then quickly caught Willow as she entered a trance and fainted. With a loud, primal roar, Hedge's skin bubbled and his body contorted as he grew larger and larger; flames shooting out of his eyes and spikes growing out of his skin.

Kinney reassured Lia that they'd be fine as long as they "play smart." Nix, breaking a little out of his funk, reassured everyone that he'd be fine as long as he was able to focus on his ice powers; the ones he had near-perfect control over. Kinney smirked and told Nix to "freeze the hell out of this place." Happy to oblige, Nix again dropped the temperature of the room until everyone could see their breath linger in the air. His fists turned in to ice and the encasement increased until his whole body was made of ice. Snow started to swirl around them.

Meanwhile, Penumbra instructed Draco to keep a look out for the flag while the rest of the team kept the others busy. Lookout passed the unconscious Willow over to Logan as she followed Hedge, Penumbra, and Draco in to the maze. The three began their search for the flag while Lookout kept the opposing team trapped inside a force field they had yet to realize was around them.

Kinney started yelling out orders. Luke and Nix were instructed to keep the other team distracted with rain, snow, ice, anything the two of them could throw at them. Annika was directed to do whatever she could to slow down the other team; martial arts or telepathy, it didn't matter. Chayse and Lia were told to move as fast as they could through the maze in order to find the flag, with Chayse having the extra duty of keeping Lia safe.

Getting chilled by Nix freezing the room around them, Lia powered up in to her obsidian form, creating a heat aura around her in the process. Pumped and ready to go, the team raced towards the maze entrance. Nix quickly took the lead, only to slam full-force in to the force field Lookout created around them.

Annika, Chayse, and Lia raced to Nix's side as he recovered. Lia stared at the entrance of the maze and wondered what literally knocked Nix on to his back. Holding out her hand she felt an invisible wall. Nix then created a small spiral of snow pressing against the spot that Lia pointed out, showing off the wall blocking them. Lia quickly asked Chayse if he could phase through it, but before he could answer Monster Hedge showed up in front of them, taking a deep breath as if he were readying to spit fire.

Kinney pushed his squad behind him and extended his claws, preparing for battle in case Hedge could somehow break through the barrier blocking them. Readying for the attack, Nix repowered up in to his ice form, creating a harpoon in his hand in the process. In a panic, Azatullah pulled further from the group and cowered.

Concentrating too much on the wall and Lia's question, Chayse didn't notice Hedge. He focused on phasing through the force field, easily getting through since Lookout didn't create it too thick. He turned to let the group to know that it was passable, only to finally notice their battle stances. He whipped back around as Hedge released his fiery breath. Utilizing his superior reflexes he dodged the flame, but still felt its intense heat as it whizzed past him. Thankfully, the force field also acted as a shield as the flame smacked against it and dissipated. The blast revealed that the invisible wall nearly reached the ceiling.

Now knowing that it didn't somehow suppress powers, Luke quickly teleported to the other side of the force field and behind Hedge in an attempt to distract him from Chayse. Upset that the rest of the team was supposedly forgotten, Kinney yelled for Luke and Chayse to return and find a way to get the rest of the team past the force field. Before Luke could comply he felt something wrap around his waist. Penumbra pulled on the shadow, but Luke teleported out of the tug just in time. Appearing on the other side of the force field, he was quickly accompanied by Chayse and the two awaited Kinney's next order.

With new determination Kinney told his troops to "take down Hedge." With a smirk and a nod Luke used his mother's ability to manipulate weather to create a mini tornado outside the force field, again using it as an unintentional shield. Annika and Lia each grabbed one of Chayse's hands and told him to phase them all through. Nix powered up his telepathy, the tell-tale diamond skin already forming.

Although Chayse warned Nix against using the telepathy so soon after his incident that morning Nix continued. Ignoring everyone Nix used his telepathy to try to find the person responsible for the force field in an attempt to disable them and get the field down. Fearing that he'd again lose control, Kinney quickly grabbed Nix's shoulder and shook him out of his telepathic trance.

Startled, Nix returned to normal and violently shoved Kinney back, slamming him against a wall.

"What?" Nix screamed, "Where am I supposed to get a handle on this if not here? If I can't learn this damn thing this morning will repeat itself! I can't handle that! I see her face, Lucas!" His voice dropped as he took a step away from Kinney, releasing his teacher's uniform. "I see it… I hear her thoughts… God…" Nix slumped to the floor, tears spilling on to his cheeks, "She was so scared… I can't get it out of my head." His body shook as he thought about the girl and fought against weeping in the middle of the session. "I gave a twelve-year-old girl a hemorrhage this morning. If my mother hadn't been here to fix the problem, she'd have died. She's still in a coma in the infirmary, and it's my fault."

Kinney knelt in front of Nix, wrapped an arm around the teen's shoulders, and reassured him that they will work on the telepathy thing so he'd never again hurt anyone like that. He followed up that a room full of other students wasn't the right venue and Nix had to be patient. Finally understanding, Nix relayed over that the force field was Lookout's power, but there was some sort of interference preventing him from mentally attacking her. The thing that concerned him the most, however, was that Hedge didn't seem to have a mental signature.

Just as he expressed his concern Lia called out that something was happening to Hedge. While Nix was having his mini-breakdown the wind from Luke's mini-tornado had whipped around Hedge; scattering him as if he were made of smoke. Luke picked up the wind, but made sure to avoid his three teammates on the other side of the force field. He grabbed a hold of Azatullah and teleported them by the scattering Hedge, claiming that the two of them will keep Hedge busy. Azatullah had different plans and slowly slinked away unnoticed as he started to traverse the maze. He desperately attempted to find the flag in hopes of ending the session without too much confrontation and fighting.

Annika called out that she'd be going after Lookout and that Chayse and Lia should go find the flag. Chayse phased and started to literally run through the maze, completely ignoring the walls as he passed through them. Lia almost instantly got turned around in the maze, immediately losing track of both Annika and Chayse.

Using her telepathy to try to get a bead on Lookout, Annika threaded through the maze with ease. Making sure Chayse and Lia were doing just as good, she sent a mental question over to Lia. Although she knew Annika was communicating telepathically, Lia still responded aloud that she was beyond lost, but Chayse seemed to have been doing well for the brief moment she had sight of him. Annika nodded acknowledgement even though she knew her teammates couldn't see her. She then tried to mentally locate Chayse so she could direct Lia through the maze and to him.

Getting Annika's relay that Lia was lost, Chayse instantly stopped and looked at the maze wall in front of him. He mentally told Annika to stay away from the walls and to warn the rest of their team to do the same. He then touched the maze wall and focused. It kept a few minutes because of how massive an item it was that he was trying to charge, but slowly a lime green glow rippled out from his hand as it filled the maze walls.

Annika was a bit too distracted to relay over Chayse's message. She finally found Lookout; and was promptly punched through one of the maze walls. With a groan and a crack of her neck Annika stood back up and started punching at Marjory. The two begin a battle of fisticuffs, but Annika had no clue exactly how outmatched she was considering Marjory's super-human strength and durability. Lookout easily took the punches and quickly grappled Annika in to a bear hug before slowly squeezing the girl in to submission. The battle did seem to distract Lookout enough to drop the force field still preventing Kinney and Nix from entering the maze.

The force field was disabled and the strange monstrous Hedge was completely whipped away by Luke's tornado. Kinney whispered a swear as he realized that Monster Hedge was nothing more than some sort of illusion. With new resolve and no longer anything physically preventing him to continue with the session, Nix created a sheet of ice much like the kind his father frequently moved around on. Blasting an ice path in front of him, Nix quickly wove his way through the maze. As he left Kinney's heightened field of hearing, Nix whistled and commented about the glowing green walls.

Startled, Kinney switched focus to that of the green glowing maze, instantly knowing that it would not end well. Shaking his head in exasperation, he raced in to the maze; Luke following close behind with his tornado in toe.

Logan also instantly knew that green walls were not a good omen for anyone, and told his team to watch out.

"Is green bad?" Penumbra cocked an eyebrow at her instructor.  
"You could say that," Wolverine grumbled and backed away from the maze, placing the still unconscious Willow against the far wall to protect her.

Nix found Chayse easily enough; slamming right in to his back. After quickly recovering, he asked what was going on. Chayse - already a bit fatigued from charging such a large mass - responded that he was ready to blow the maze, but he wasn't sure where Annika or Lia are; let alone the rest of the team.

"Got it," Nix created more ice and raced through the maze in an attempt to find anyone – or the flag – sending out a mental radar as he went. Annika quickly sensed him and telepathically asked if he was doing any better; only to be quickly cut off as she screamed in pain as Lookout gave her another tight squeeze. Nix quickened as he skated towards her location.

Feeling faint from the lack of oxygen in Lookout's grasp, Annika desperately swung her leg out to clip Marjory behind the knee. She hooked and pulled back, forcing Lookout to collapse. Still stuck in Marjory's bear hug, but the grapple loosened, Annika began wiggling to try to break free completely. It wasn't long before Nix rounded the corner and sent a blast of snow at Lookout.

The snow was just enough distraction for Annika to break away from Marjory, only to quickly turn back around and start kicking the girl in the abs. While still attacking her opponent, Annika telepathically asked Lia how she was doing.

Lia mentally yelled back that she wasn't doing well at all. She was beyond lost in the maze, had no clue where anyone was, and was getting really nervous about the glowing walls. She punctuated her concern by screaming out loud for anyone to come and fetch her. Quickly calmed after shouting, Lia then mentally asked Annika for any kind of direction.

Smirking at her young roommate's distress, Annika mentally told Lia to just steer clear of the walls because they were about to blow. She quickly added that help was on the way, and then told Nix to fetch the young Brazilian-American. Nix headed back through the maze towards Lia's mental signature and telepathically told her to try to find his melted ice trail so she had "breadcrumbs" to follow.

"I don't see any water anywhere," Lia called out with a heavy sigh, hanging her head before backtracking. It kept her two minutes, but she did eventually find a portion of Nix's melted trail. Looking up and down the hallway she wondered if she should follow the trail left or right. Heaving another sigh, she headed to the right and hoped she chose correctly. Thankfully, not even a minute later Nix caught up with her. He mentally called out to Annika that he found Lia.

"Hey, kid! Long time no see," Nix chuckled, "Your friend is looking for you. Your boyfriend misses you too. Won't shut up about you." He grinned at Lia blushing, causing a deep glow behind her obsidian skin as the lava bubbled just below the surface. "Let's go back, hold on tight!" He paused a second before scooping Lia on to his back, "Just don't burn me, kay?" Lia pursed her lips and huffed, making Nix chuckle again. She quickly powered down to prevent hurting Nix as she climbed on to his back. As he skated back towards Chayse as fast as he could, she grumbled about Chayse not being her boyfriend; only to pause a moment and ask Nix what he thought.

Nix chuckled and a moment later they arrived beside the Cajun. "Here ya go, one Volcano Girl neatly delivered. So, you guys ready to kick some ass?" Nix started up a swirl of snow around him.

Annika - having finally managed to knock Marjory out thanks to Nix's snow distraction - ran up to the group just in time to answer Nix's question with a "Hell yeah." Chayse neared fainting and so he instructed Nix to encase everyone in an ice dome to protect them from the explosion. As Nix started to form the dorm around them, Lia cried out that they were still missing "the skittish Middle Eastern kid."

Somehow Lucas managed to miss his squad as he passed through the maze and ended up running in to Logan and Penumbra instead. He quipped about making a wrong turn somewhere before preparing to spar. Penumbra calmly crossed her arms before telling Kinney to back down since he was outnumbered three to one. Lucas simply replied that those were his kind of odds, only for Luke to disperse his tornado and descend next to him. With a smirk Kinney added that it seems the odds were gathering in his favor.

"How about these odds?" Penumbra smiled as Wolverine started to replicate in to three, "You see, my power is to create duplicates of others."

Kinney calmly told Luke to take Penumbra down while he would take on the Wolverine triple threat. Luke quickly agreed and formed a tiny thundercloud overhead, striking the floor next to himself with a bolt of lightning. At the loud clap of thunder, Kinney growled and charged at the Wolverine triplets.

Meanwhile, around the center of the maze Azatullah was cautiously snaking his way through, eyes peeled for the flag. He nervously wove his way round corners, making sure the hall he was about to enter was empty; anything to avoid having to fight anyone. Along with watching for the other students and the flag, he readied himself for whatever the green glowing walls meant.

As he mumbled to himself about needing to find the flag, Azatullah managed to miss seeing a scraggly young teen boy with green hair and a green tint to his skin. The boy was just as oblivious to Azatullah's presence, mumbling to himself just as nervously as he cautiously crawled along the floor. The two collided, Winston accidentally tripping Azutullah as the Muslim boy tumbled over the kneeling teen.

Suddenly the walls all exploded with a deafening blast, Chayse quickly phasing inside the igloo Nix had formed. The four teens huddled inside as Nix reinforced the dome. Lia struggled to keep her powers in check; her body temperature naturally rising to keep her from getting chilled inside the igloo, but at the same time the radiating heat began melting the ice.

Annika asked if anyone could see the flag now that the maze was down. Lia snapped back, "Little busy watching the room explode around us!" Annika laughed at her roommate's reaction and reassured her that "it's nothing."

Luke teleported away from the walls and behind Penumbra just as the maze exploded. Kinney, on the other hand, embraced the shockwave from the blast. The absorption of all the kinetic energy powered him up as the wave accelerated his dive towards the Logans.

As the walls around Azatullah and Winston exploded, the Muslim boy pulled his adversary in close, covering him with his own body. Winston curled in tight as he cowered under Azatullah's meat shield. The explosion died down quickly enough, and Azatullah grumbled as he rocked back in to a kneeling position in order to let Hedge out from under him. He started asking if the green-haired kid was alright, but his voice faded as he fell forward in a faint. His back was peppered with shrapnel from the walls and covered in his own blood.

Collapsed back on top of Hedge, the shrapnel slowly crept out of Azatullah's skin; pushed out of his body by his muscles as they mended themselves. About a minute later Azatullah arched his back with a groan and a loud crack. He cautiously stood back up among the rubble around him, and then grumbled about always being the one to get hurt. He looked down and saw that Hedge hadn't moved. After quickly checking that the boy was only unconscious, Azatullah scooped him up and started to fireman carry him out of the debris.

As the dust began to settle Nix released the highly damaged ice shield. He scanned the now-open room, but he couldn't find the flag. With no walls separating them anymore, the small group was able to hear Luke also state that he couldn't see the flag anywhere.

Angered at Chayse taking such extreme measures in order to "help" his team, Lia whipped around to the Cajun and started yelling at him.

"Caj, did you blow up the damn flag too? Really needed to overdo it, didn't you? You friggen hot-headed, no brained, O-P-ed, swamp-head."

Chayse just shrugged and asked Lia why he was so hot-headed. He had powered up the walls to take them down so they could see the flag easier, and since he only charged the walls the flag should still be in the room somewhere. Luke teleported to a point right around the center of the maze, assuming the flag should have been around there under the rubble.

No longer having to worry about an opponent, Penumbra melted in to the shadows, catching Kinney's eye. He whipped around to the Logans, "She has it, doesn't she?"

Chayse huffed that the whole point of blowing up the maze was so they could find the flag easier, but all he could see was Annika's mom in the corner. Lia cocked her head to the side and asked what Rachel was doing in the Danger Room, "Wasn't she supposed to be watching from the observation room?"

Kinney bellowed out that Phoenix was the one with the flag. A moment later the room filled with laughter as Penumbra rose out of Rachel's shadow and commented on the woman's lovely belt: the flag.

The quartet each yelled out. Lia was concerned about the other team winning, Nix gave a bit of an "oh shit" at the realization of the flag, Annika ordered Noelle to stay away from her mother, and Chayse directed Nix to freeze the shadow manipulator.

Before Chayse's group had the chance to properly react, Penumbra reached out for Rachel's belt; only to be stopped by one of Luke's lightning bolts zipping between the two of them. Both Phoenix and Penumbra dove away from each other as they dodged the lightning. Rachel smiled at Luke's quick reaction time and precision, Noelle – on the other hand – glared at her adversary.

A heartbeat later Nix managed to freeze Penumbra's feet to the floor, preventing her from dodging Annika's attacks as she started swiftly kicking at the Brit. Lia knew she wouldn't be fast enough to help in hand-to-hand combat, so she powered back up one last time. With some concentration she was able to create softball-sized fireballs and started whipping them at Penumbra. Unfortunately for her, Noelle had already quickly crumbled under Annika's barrage, leaving only Lia's roommate as a target for the fireballs. Annika cursed a little as she dodged out of the way, causing Lia to blush and sheepishly call out an apology. Annika laughed and told her that it was fine and that her hair needed a trim anyway. She then blew the singed ends of her hair to stop the burn.

Luke scanned for where Rachel had run off to, but as soon as he caught sight of her his vision was blurred by rainbows wrapping around him; causing him to see only streaks of color.

"Aww, forgot about me already?" Willow chirped with her head cocked. In all the confusion no one had noticed that she had woken up and strolled over to Penumbra. The petite girl cradled her teammate and stared Luke down.

Luke shook his head and when he reopened his eyes he now saw roughly three-hundred copies of Rachel scattered throughout the room. He had no clue which one was the right one to teleport to. The dizzying impact of so many copies racing around him only increased with the added confusion of now seeing fifteen revolutionaries and three skinny Santas stuffed in the room as well.

Willow giggled as she watched Luke collapse under the headache-inducing overstimulation of so many people crammed in his line of sight. After observing the interaction, Kinney noticed that the triple Wolverines were back to just one Logan. Realizing that Willow was the one who could create illusions – the fake Hedge Monster and Penumbra's bluff of creating duplicates - Lucas cried out for Chayse to watch out for her. He quickly added for someone to "grab the friggen flag already."

Chayse scanned for Rachel and noticed her close to Azatullah. He cried out for his teammate to grab the belt, confusing the shy boy. Seeing that Hedge was also with Azatullah, Annika cried out that she was after the flag, and then sprinted towards her mom before Hedge had a chance to wake up and win the game for the other team.

She didn't need to worry; Azatullah soon understood what was being asked of him and he reached out. He managed to grab the flag just before Annika reached them. Rachel turned to congratulate the boy, angling herself just enough that Annika ended up slamming smack in to her mom instead of stopping short. With a groan Annika asked her mom why she was always in the way. Huffing and stomping, Annika left the Danger Room, upset with herself for not performing better during the session.

Kinney congratulated his team as Azatullah handed the belt back to Rachel and again checked on Winston. Noticing Hedge collapsed in Azatullah's arms, Lia sprinted over to help carry the green-haired boy in to the infirmary. As she passed Chayse she shook her head and again called him a "hot-headed swamp brain."

Chayse shrugged back at her and cried out "what did I do now?" When she ignored his question he shifted focus to Nix who had nearly passed out from all the excitement of the day. He offered a shoulder for Nix to lean on and chuckled at his tired best friend, "You're gonna be out cold tonight, aren't ya?"

Nix laughed back, "Ice pun there."

Now that the game was over, Luke's vision returned to normal. He stretched and rubbed his eyes before teleporting out of the room and in to his dorm.

Logan scooped Lookout over one shoulder and walked over to Willow who was still cradling Penumbra. Unsheathing one claw, he broke the ice around Noelle's feet and scooped her up on to his other shoulder. He congratulated Willow for being the only member still awake at the end of the session, reassured her that the rest of the Colossus Academy crew would be fine, and finished by telling her to relay over to "That worthless spawn of Deadpool's" that he was going to get a talking to for his disappearance during the session.

* * *

****A/N: Yep, Draco was the player who left the session towards the beginning of it due to internet issues... the thing is that none of the players seemed to notice. Using Creative Licencing I just tagged on that last bit of Wolverine talking to Willow so that Draco's unexplained disappearance was at least acknowledged. **

**I was also struggling how to figure out the relationship between Azatullah's parents Wolverine and Dust, considering Dust is Sunni Muslim and therefore would be HIGHLY unlikely to have any pre-marital sex, let alone enough of it to conceive a child. Add in that there were at least four players already that were the result of one-night-stands, and I was hard-pressed to determine that Azatullah was yet another result of a "single moment of weakness". Since Azatullah wasn't played much in-game I didn't write about him in the prologue and figured I could just state that his powers were the earth-particle manipulation; completely ignoring the claws and healing he inherited from Logan. However, after reading this session I realized I couldn't ignore his parentage... so perhaps I'll go back and edit the prologue to include how Logan and Sooraya ended up together... {sigh} ****


	5. Driven to the Edge

****A/N: Alright, cutting this close. I finished this off when I only had about 1/2 hr before work. This week's chapter was tricky to figure out. Out of 136 board topics that we have/do role play on I narrowed down to 22 created topics on the third day of the game: June 22, 2012. From there I narrowed down further to 10 active topics. I then copied and pasted all of the posts from the 22nd in to a word document so I could better organize them; all (roughly) 130 of them.  
**

**After two days of tracking down all the posts I needed and organizing them so I could better understand/remember what happened in-game I finally got around to writing. There was so much going on that the 22nd posts will end up as three or four chapters. On the plus side, all the hard work is done. All I really need to do is write the next chapters without the accountability of the Writers' Huddle Summer Writing Challenge.**

**Alright, some legal stuffs and then I'll let you get to reading. ^_^  
****_X-Men and the Xavier Institute are all the property of Marvel Comics. The OCs (Chayse, Nix, Lia, Annika, Hedge, Lucas Kinney, Azatullah, Penumbra, Lookout, and Filipe) are all the intellectual property of the players that created them for our game._********  


* * *

The Day After the Capture the Flag Session in the Danger Room

* * *

While most of the student body continued with their daily routines around the school, there was still tension felt by a handful of the resident mutants. Hedge, Penumbra, and Lookout all had quick recoveries in the infirmary thanks to Filipe's healing touch. Noelle and Marjory had both woken up as Logan was carrying them to the infirmary, and Filipe easily healed the minor cuts and bruising Annika's years of martial arts training inflicted upon them. Hedge had suffered a minor concussion during the maze explosion.

It would have been a lot worse if Azatullah hadn't thrown himself as a human shield on top of the gangly boy; however, Trapdoor's quick thinking also resulted in a less-than-gentle tackle. Dr. Reyes wasn't entirely sure if the concussion was from a piece of wall hitting Winston's head, or from Winston's head hitting the hard, metal floor of the Danger Room in Azatullah's attempt to protect him. Either way, Filipe was able to heal his roommate within five minutes. After another hour of observation Hedge was allowed to return to his room.

Regardless of the three visiting students being perfectly fine within an hour of the session - as well as the fact that her roommate was the one who took two of them out - Lia still stormed around the mansion pissed off at how Chayse decided to solve the maze problem of the Capture the Flag game. As she worked her way through the day she was frequently overheard mumbling about the "hot-headed swamp-for-brains".

Even Chayse was pissed off at himself. He regretted his decision to blow up the maze as an attempt to make things easier for everyone. He also regretted his possible involvement in Winston's injury during the session, the fact that he didn't truly understand the physical threat he was creating for everyone, and how much Lia seemed to resent him now. On top of all that, he hated that Kinney had to tell him to phase the rest of his team past the force field Lookout had trapped them in. He still couldn't figure out why he hadn't thought of that on his own.

In an attempt to try to calm himself, he phased himself to his secret, secluded spot: The roof of the Institute. It was the place he always went to be alone and to think. He had his favorite book and planned to get lost in it to help elevate all the overwhelming thoughts bouncing around his head. He didn't succeed. It kept him hours of trying to force himself to focus on his book in order to complete it. His mind kept wandering back to how upset Lia was with him, how many injuries he could have caused, how inadequate he was at planning a battle strategy and leading a group, as well as thoughts about how Nix had lost control of his powers just earlier that day. Was Chayse really so confident in his powers that he didn't fear the same issue of injuring people with his abilities?

Chayse wasn't the only one who was soul searching about how ready he was to be on a squad, let alone lead one. Four floors below his best friend Nix was back in the infirmary. The girl he had injured the previous morning had woken from her coma at about one in the morning, but still slept most of the time as she recovered. Reyes tried to comfort Nix by verifying that the girl would make a full recovery and he hadn't done any permanent damage to her. While doing her psychic surgery Emma had removed the memory and fear of Nix taking control of her, so she wouldn't even have any emotional or psychological scars. As far as everyone else knew – including the girl – she contracted a rare, but natural-occurring brain hemorrhage. Her parents were still pulling her from the Institute. They were grateful for the expert medical care on-campus that was available to save their daughter's life, but they preferred to keep her close to home in case something like that happened again.

Nix hated that he prevented the girl from getting the protection, comfort, and training that only the Xavier Institute could provide. He felt that he stole her future from her, and grieved the ramifications of losing control. Infuriated with himself, Nix stormed out of the infirmary and up to the Memorial Fountain that stood at the entrance of the institute. As he walked around to the front of the fountain he took in the statues of Rogue and Jean placed atop the large fountain. His eyes then fixated on the statue of the school's founder and his father's former teacher, the great Charles Xavier. The statue's hollow stone eyes seemed to judge him as well.

Again focusing on the powers he effortlessly controlled; Nix shifted the fountain's water in to piles of snow, then to ice, and then back. He froze the humidity that surrounded the fountain, creating snow that he swirled around the memorial statue. Soon more snow fell from the sky, coating the entire front courtyard of the Institute. Some other students - still warm from the last remnants of summer that were in the air just five minutes ago – gleefully played in the isolated Winter Wonderland. They tossed snow balls, flopped on to the ground to create angel imprints, and built a snowman.

Nix ignored the joy around him. He pushed his ability to manipulate ice and snow more and more as he demonstrated to himself that he was in fact a powerful mutant that was capable of controlling his vast potential. The impromptu training backfired in reassuring him. All it resulted in was irritating him more about what he did to the girl the day before. Being able to bend the winter weather with a whim made him wonder why he couldn't do the same with his telepathy. His father's powers came so naturally to him; so why was he struggling so much with his mother's?

He was the product of two powerful mutants and was able to inherit both of their abilities. He was taught how to control his powers since birth; since before his powers even manifested. He was practically bred to be a leader for this new generation of mutants. He finally looked away from the judgmental glare of Xaviar's part of the memorial statue; noticing the other students frolicking around him.

"How can I ever lead anyone if I can't even control myself?" Suddenly watching the other teens playing broke something inside him. They seemed so carefree. They weren't buried under pressure and expectation of greatness. They didn't need to train all the time. They didn't push themselves or torture themselves. They haven't put years – even a decade – in to training their power only for that hard work to be fruitless. They never nearly killed a girl because their daily training for over a decade hadn't succeeded in teaching them anything.

With a growl like a polar bear Nix's face distorted in to a grimace as his eyes flashed a vibrant blue-white, like the blinding sunlight off fresh snow. His classmates surrounding him stopped in their merriment in order to see what was wrong. Nix stood with his body tense as if he were about to pounce on any one of them; instead he simply pointed to the completed snowman.

The tower of snow lurched forward before the snowman began clumsily chasing after the other students like a frozen zombie. Like a puppeteer controlling his marionette, Nix silently gave the snowman directives with jerky hand movements. The living snow beast continued to lunge at the teens until they all raced out of the courtyard, making a chaotic ruckus as they screamed. Once he was again alone by the fountain Nix directed the snowman to turn and attack him. As his frozen automaton limped over towards him Nix formed an ice spear and threw it through the snowman's chest; causing it to explode and gently snow back down on to the grounds.

Finally calming down after being able to take out some of his aggression, Nix's eyes returned to normal and he let out a long, shaky sigh. He returned the atmospheric heat of the courtyard to normal before he went inside to try to track down his mother.

He wandered the mansion for a little while, sending out faint mental signals in hopes to find her. When she didn't respond and he couldn't track Emma down by conventional means Nix gave up and instead headed towards Lia and Annika's room. Not only would seeing Annika automatically calm him down, but she too was a psychic. Perhaps she could help him train, or at least ask her mother to help train him whenever Emma was otherwise indisposed.

When he got to the room he found that a note was pinned to the door. It was a folded piece of paper with Chayse's handwriting on it and Lia's name. He knocked on the door, but was greeted with silence, as he assumed he would. He quickly ran to the community study at the beginning of the hallway and grabbed a pen and piece of loose-leaf. He quickly scribbled out a note and returned to Annika's dorm. He tried again in case she returned while he was writing his note. When there was still no answer he pinned his note to the door with another perma-ice rose; this time it was white. In hopes that Annika would receive her letter soon, Nix headed for his room.

The commotion Nix caused on the front lawn forced Chayse to finally give up on his reading. He slammed his book closed and phased back in to the building; not even bothering to look over the courtyard to see what the uproar was all about. With a heavy sigh he walked in to his closet, grabbed his X-Men uniform, and phased through the floor in order to return the book to the library. About two minutes later Nix returned to the room, still clueless on where Chayse had been all day.

Chayse didn't even bother slowing his increasing velocity as he fell in to the library. He quickly dropped off the book on the check-out counter as he plummeted past, remaining phased as he swiftly plunged through the library floor. Another floor whizzed by as he phased through the massive amount of backup furniture the institute had stockpiled in the large storage room. He finally used his mother's technique of air-walking to slow his decent as he passed in to the operation room of the infirmary. Thankfully it was rarely in use – the previous morning being an acceptation – and he didn't disturb anything as he finally solidified. Taking a deep breath he again became intangible as he ran through the infirmary and to the elevator that would finally take him to the Danger Room.

Within ten minutes of leaving his rooftop perch Chayse was three stories below ground. He walked over to the Danger Room's control panel and started to punch in the specifications of his solo-run training session, just like how he had done hundreds of times before over the past three years. The computer flickered a verification message on screen, and Chayse quickly hit the override. As the program set up he walked in to the locker room in order to change.

As Chayse was taking his Phasing Express Elevator through the institute, Lia made it back to her dorm and discovered the white perma-ice rose and note Nix had left Annika. She then discovered the smaller note with her name. She opened it and saw only one other word written on the paper: Sorry. She didn't recognize Chayse's handwriting, but she still knew it was from him. The simple word seemed to annoy her more than sooth, and she quickly burnt the note in to a pile of ashes in her palm. Dusting her hands off, she headed for the boys' wing; not to talk to Chayse, but to check up on Hedge.

She passed by the House of Cool – the dorm Nix and Chayse shared – and shook her head disapprovingly. She politely knocked on Winston and Filipe's door, calling out for Hedge as she did. Winston sat beside his dorm window and pressed seeds in to his sill pot. Lia again called out to him, letting him know who was at the door and that she was just checking in to make sure he was alright; Winston continued to focus on the seeds. He had no problem continuing to ignore Lia as she let out a dramatically audible exasperated sigh before slamming against his door; clearly leaning on it in the least delicate way possible. He waved his hand over the sill pot and the seeds sprouted out of the soil. Within seconds they were fully bloomed, bringing the first smile to Hedge's face since arriving on the East Coast.

"Where the heck could he be? Shouldn't he be resting?" Lia pushed herself off of Hedge's door and turned to return to her own room. As she passed by the door with the "House of Cool" sign hanging off it Lia paused, staring at the wood. She realized that as mad as she was, she was also worried about Chayse. He had used a lot of energy to charge up all of those maze walls. She didn't know him too well and didn't know how straining that amount of effort was on him, but he did look exhausted after the session was over. She looked at the lingering ash that clung to her finger pads and felt guilty about dismissing his apology so quickly.

"At the very least I could check on Nix. He seemed pretty drained too." She heaved another dramatic sigh before willing her hand up to the door in order to knock. She didn't linger as long as she did at Hedge's dorm when no one answered. She muttered a quick "whatever" before continuing her way to her dorm.

Nix opened his dorm door as Lia passed by the main stairwell that lead in to the large living room the Back-To-School mixer was held in two days before. He rambled off an apology for not answering the door sooner, explaining that he was preparing for a picnic date with Annika. He cut himself off when he realized he was talking to an empty hallway. With a shrug he moved to close the door again when he got an overwhelming sensation of dread. He couldn't really explain what was going to happen or why it gave him such a bad feeling; all he knew was that something was wrong, and it somehow involved Chayse.

Over the years of growing up together and the two boys bonding, Nix's telepathy allowed him to create an empathic bond with Chayse – the only part of his mother's powers that was second nature to him. It was this subconscious thing that Nix usually forgot even exited. Then there were times like that one that reminded him of that connection. It was like an obsessive impulse, he couldn't focus on anything else but Chayse and how something wasn't right.

He hardened himself in to his ice form – just like his father could – and then quickly increased his body temperature to normal, forcing his ice form to vaporize. As a cloud of mist, Nix blew down to the Danger Room as fast as he could. As he passed Lia by the stairs she felt her skin dampen and heard his echoed voice yell back "Sorry I mist ya."

With a groan at his pun about not answering her knocking before, Lia returned to her room, changed in to her X-Men uniform, and then headed outside to do some light training. There was an obstacle course by the swimming pool and tennis courts in the back half of the estate. Over the past summer of attending the institute Lia had heard students talk about it and decided to check it out.

As she made her way through the institute Lucas Kinney was already out back on the obstacle course. He was proud of the work he did on it and how challenging it was for even him to complete. He gave it a quick once-over before pressing the start button on the course timer. Determined to beat the course record, Kinney slammed his body in to the muddy ground and gator crawled under the low-hanging electrified wires. The wires weren't charged enough to actually injure anyone, but they had enough to shock and slow down anyone hit by them; like being hit by a dog shock collar. Crawling along his belly for the first five feet of the course was a simple task.

Only a few seconds passed before he could jump back up to his feet and vault himself up the twenty-foot rock climb. This part was a touch trickier as his fingertips barely gripped the wall as he pulled himself to the plateau. The timer ticked past two minutes as he grabbed the zipline perched atop the rockwall and followed it back down to the ground. Still three feet above the ground, Kinney released the zipline handles and broke in to a sprint until he reached the fifteen-foot long tire run.

He barely needed to think about alternating his feet as he threaded them through the off-set trail of tires. The entire stretch barely took him a minute to complete and he still had some energy left to push himself in to another sprint as he reached the bar climb.

The towering wall went another fifteen-feet, but this time straight up. There was a metal track that laced up the center of the wall in the shape of a subtle zig-zag pattern, and a small bar rested at the bottom. After taking a second to catch his breath and recollect himself, Kinney stood sideways against the wall. Gripping the bar he pulled himself in to a chin-up as he curled his legs in behind him. As he exhaled he quickly pushed his arms up along the track and caught the bar in the notch about two feet above him. With another deep inhale as he again pulled in to a chin-up, Kinney once more pushed his arms two feet above him along the track and in to the next notch. Although his grip already felt strained he forced himself up the fifteen-foot climb, two tiring feet at a time. It was about five minutes in to his run by the time he reached the summit and pulled himself up off the bar.

As he swung himself over the top of the obstacle he hit a button that reset the climbing bar. The notches the bar normally rested in during the climb all filled in, pushing the bar back down the metal track with obnoxiously loud clanking until it reached the bottom. Kinney followed the bar back down the wall, but his route was down a rope that dangled along the back of the obstacle. As he once more touched the ground he pumped the last two feet before hitting the stop button on the course's timer.

He completed the course in just under six minutes, but it was still fifteen seconds slower than the current record. He briefly cursed himself out before walking over to his things. As he picked up his towel to clean off his sweat his communicator started buzzing. He scooped it up and quickly checked to see what was wrong, only to see an alert that someone was attempting a Danger Room session two levels above their recommended degree of difficulty.

Kinney again started to curse as he sprinted off to the Danger Room, not caring what profanity the students might have overheard as he passed them.

Chayse stood outside the Danger Room doors and announced his presence to the computer.

"Warning," the computerized female voice chimed back, "Training session is above recommended."

"Yeah, I know. Proceed."

The emotionless female voice replied, "Initiating training sequence Cajun Level 9."

Chayse smirked as he cracked his knuckles and entered the Danger Room, the doors locking behind him.

* * *

****A/N: This was yet another chapter that had a lot of creative licensing throughout. I'm beginning to learn that straight relating over of what happens on the boards will rarely happen. Things just work differently when you're role playing in a sort of script-format. I have to fill in a lot of blanks as I write out these narratives. I don't really mind - as tricky as they are (and the next chapter will have a VERY interesting plot-hole I have to fill in at the end :P ) - because it allows me to stretch my actual writing wings. ****


	6. Rescues and Robots

****A/N: It was tricky to split up Hubby's merged post and splice it in with the posts going on in the Observation Deck thread in order to create this comprehensive narrative. I hope I got things right. :P**

**Anyway, Hubby writes the bare minimum needed to know what's going on, so I needed to do a lot of creative flourishing. Most of the descriptions are just how I pictured things going down. On the plus side, yay for this being more of me creatively writing and less me just parroting what happened on the forum. This chapter is definitely more narrative than the previous ones and includes a few more bits of dialog. **

**_Legal Stuff:  
X-Men, MRD, Sentinels, Gambit, Shadowcat, Wolverine, the Danger Room, and the Xavier Institute are all the property of Marvel Comics. The OCs (Chayse, Nix, Annika, Lucas Kinney, Filipe, William, and Joyce) are all the intellectual property of the players that created them for our game.**_**

* * *

The large, heavy, metal doors of the Danger Room sealed shut behind Chayse as he walked towards the center of the enormous, empty room. Once he reached the middle the floor began to tremble, throwing Chayse slightly off balance. He remained standing and carefully scanned the room as buildings emerged from the floor and shot up multiple stories above him. Within seconds the holographic programming of the Danger Room had Chayse standing among the ruins of a large city, maybe even New York.

The streets were vacant, and there was an orange haze in the air from months of lingering dust condensing in the atmosphere. The buildings were blasted to shreds. Not even squatters could find shelter in any of the remaining walls. Discarded paper and other trash littered the ground. Metal scraps were ripped from the abandoned tanks that lined the streets. The only other vehicles visible were highly damaged. Some looked like they were crushed under a giant's foot; a large shoeprint implanted in to the car roofs.

Chayse rolled his shoulders, and then stretched his neck while cracking his knuckles. The enemy was bound to show soon and he didn't want to be caught off guard. He cautiously stepped off the abandoned street corner and began walking up the avenue. The session started off extremely quiet. There was no hustle of citizens, no incessant honking or other normal urban sounds, not even the chirp of birds or other evidence of nature reclaiming the city.

He turned the corner and nearly ran in to the opponent he most feared spotting: a sentinel. Thankfully, there was no way he would be in danger at this juncture. The colossal robot lay broken along the ground, taking up almost the entire birth between the buildings on opposite sides of the street. Its maroon helmeted head was torn open, and its wired brain ripped apart. Chayse walked past the android's automotive-sized cranium, eyeing up one of his parents' greatest adversaries. Its sunken in face was black and blank. He prayed it would stay that way, fearing to see semblance of life return to the robot in the form of its haunting yellow eyes starting to glow.

Too fixated on watching the robot's vacant face Chayse nearly tripped over its gigantic hand; one that could easily hold his entire body. He recovered with a quick back flip over the jet black knuckles. Refocusing, he turned away from the dead android and took in more of his environment in order to truly understand what he was up against.

In the glassed-in loft high above Chayse's head, Nix drifted in to the Danger Room Observation Deck while still in his vapor form. He quickly solidified and scanned the windows. He saw the dense destroyed cityscape, but he couldn't find his best friend among all the rubble. Spotting dismantled metal giants littering the landscape, Nix nervously ran to the bank of surveillance monitors. He scoured each of the screens, taking in the crumbling urban setting from multiple angles. As he searched for Chayse he mumbled "c'mon, buddy, where are you?" over and over as an ironic mantra.

Before Nix had a chance to spot his best friend, Lucas Kinney burst through the door. Nix was a bit startled to see his teacher in a white tank top and ripped jeans; both caked in mud. Kinney ignored his student's confused glance, and pushed the boy aside so he could get a better look at the monitors. "Nix, who is it? Who the hell is in there?"

Nix admitted that he wasn't sure since he hadn't seen anyone yet on any of the monitors. He quickly added that he was only in the observation deck because of his empathic bond with Chayse, and so he could only assume the Cajun was the one in the solo session. Kinney cursed when he heard that it was Chayse in there and mumbled that it figured. He and Nix stood in silence for a moment as they both desperately attempted to locate the rogue student on the monitors.

As Kinney took in the scene being projected in to the Danger Room, he mumbled about it looking far too familiar. The devastated landscape, the vacant streets, the trash building in the wake of escaping masses, the remnants of large, destroyed robots; it all reminded him of that horrible future his dad was from, and where he spent his teen years. He hoped that knowing the future would allow him to help prevent it from happening. He hoped that his students would never know a future like that. Yet, here were two of them staring at his average day when he was their age. He hated it.

After three minutes of Kinney and Nix barely breathing, they finally spotted Chayse on one of the monitors. They heaved relieved sighs and muttered a joint "thank god" as they watched the young Cajun cautiously roam the streets. He didn't appear to have come across any sort of danger yet, but the session was still early on.

Aside from watching for trouble, Chayse had his mind focused on one thing, the mission of this program: Search and Rescue. Five victims were scattered throughout this projected hell, and he was determined to rescue all five. His problem was finding even one of them. Another five minutes passed before he finally came across someone. There was a young girl - maybe ten years old - with an M tattooed over her right eye; the branding stretched from her eyebrow down past her cheekbone.

She was cornered by two men in military uniforms embroidered with the letters MRD – Mutant Response Division. These soldiers were normal humans that were forced to help round up mutants to either keep in concentration camps, or to exterminate. Both men had an H branded across their right eyes, much like the girl's M-tattoo. Chayse knew they were just doing what they needed to in order to survive in this dystopia, but he still needed to save the girl.

He reached in to a pocket of the trench coat he wore as part of his uniform. Pulling out a handful of toothpicks, he charged them up and tossed them at the soldiers' feet. The men dove for cover as the tiny pieces of wood exploded, causing them to drop their batons. Before the men had a chance to recover, Chayse sprinted forward and grabbed the discarded clubs. The three battled it out, but Chayse had been taught for years how to use blunt weapons. His father probably would have preferred Chayse use the telescoped-bo staff like he did, but the found weapons worked just as well.

After Chayse knocked out the two MRD agents the monotone female voice of the Danger Room computer announced "Victim One rescued." The girl thanked Chayse and ran off. He debated running off after her to make sure she would be alright, but he quickly reminded himself that this was just a simulation. The computer had considered her saved, and so she won't be programmed to be in any further danger. In fact, he had to remind himself that she'd fade from existence as soon as she wasn't in sight any longer.

Recollecting himself, Chayse looked around to figure out which direction to take next. With a shrug he spun around with his eyes closed. When he opened them he found himself starring at the wall the girl was cornered against. Chayse gave a "meh" before phasing through the brick. The other side contained the broken skeleton of what might have been a lobby to a fancy office building or a bank of some sort. When he brushed some of the debris away with his foot he was able to spot the marble flooring still mostly intact. He continued through the lobby and walked through the metal frame that once held the glass door to the lobby.

As soon as he stepped back out on to the sidewalk he felt the earth quake slightly. He froze, taking in his surroundings as another vibration rattled past. A moment later a young couple about in their mid-twenties sprinted down the street, screaming for help. Chayse watched them race by him and then turned towards the direction they came from. After another minor quake he saw a massive jet black boot fill the corner of the street. Chayse's eyes followed up the maroon leg to the bare, black abdomen. Nestled in the chest was a large, circular cavity that had a dimmed lens embedded across it. Its broad shoulders were covered in maroon pads and two, thick, black arms dropped down to maroon gauntlets with black fingers.

Chayse stared at what he was so fixated on just fifteen minutes prior. Within the vacant black skull wrapped in a maroon helmet were two, beady eyes that glowed bright yellow. Seeing this monstrosity damaged before was terrifying enough. Now there was an active sentinel at the end of the street, and it was heading for him.

He remained frozen as he tried to steel his nerves. He reminded himself that his parents both fought these things when they weren't much older than him, and that Kinney had to survive their attacks on a nearly daily basis when he was being raised by his father. These facts didn't stop the robot from being intimidating.

There was a hollow boom and the high pitched crackle of electricity as the lens in the automaton's chest began to glow a pink-purple. Chayse yelled for the couple to find cover just as an energy blast shot from the sentinel's chest. The first attack narrowly missed all three mutants, but Chayse caught the giant already recharging for another assault. It didn't take long to charge. As the glow behind the lens hit its peak brightness, Chayse dove in front of the terrified couple. When the second blast shot out, Chayse threw one of the batons at the beam. The energy beam detonated the charged baton and created an explosion forceful enough to throw the three mutants back to the opposite end of the street – giving a larger gap between them and their pursuer – while also having enough of an impact to cause the giant to take a step back in order to steady itself.

The young couple groaned as they slowly recovered from being tossed a few yards forward. Chayse was much faster to his feet and raced over to make sure they were alright. Before he could reach them he was tripped by a set of thick metallic ropes wrapping around his legs. Slamming hard against the road again, Chayse managed to pivot himself on to his back. He helplessly watched as the sentinel reeled him back down the street. He thought about just phasing through the metal cords – they were about three inches thick, nothing too major – but he hoped staying trapped for the time being would distract the android long enough for the couple to get away unnoticed.

Up in the observation deck both Nix and Kinney hated whatever plan Chayse was concocting. The entire time he was in the observation deck Kinney had been messing with the computer in an attempt to preemptively shut down the session. When Chayse got tangled up in the sentinel's cables he frantically punched in any remaining override codes he could think of. "Dammit. They're not working! I can't shut this blasted thing down. He's locked everyone out." He muttered a few more choice words while wondering how Chayse was able to completely lock himself in to the Danger Room like that. As far as Kinney knew, only the headmasters had codes for that. Even so, the codes were only for the use of turning the Danger Room in to a panic room to keep the students safe or a prison until they could find a better way to hold an enemy. How Chayse was able to get his hands on those codes were beyond Kinney. "Damn family of thieves."

Once told that even a teacher couldn't shut down the hologram – or at least change it for that matter – Nix began to panic and shouted at Kinney. He knew that they needed to get Chayse out of there, and he needed to quickly think of how. Nix was bred to become a leader; he needed to be able to think of how to rescue people from impossible situations such as this. As he racked his brain the observation deck door opened.

William walked in with a thick book tucked under his arm. Once he spotted Kinney and Nix causing such a commotion in an attempt to get Chayse out of the Danger Room, William heaved a sigh. "What in the name of today's acid-riddled youth do I have to do to get some peace, and some quiet study time?" He grumbled some more about how this was the last room he attempted and no matter where he went there was someone "making a ruckus" that was distracting him.

Kinney quickly retorted that there was a bit more pressing matters at hand than William finding a secluded place to read. He punched in a few more override codes in to the computer, and each time the words "access denied" flashed across the screen. Bewildered, William walked over to the monitor that Nix was watching so intently. Chayse was still being dragged across the ground by the sentinel. The boy flopped around, feigning attempts to wiggle himself out of the metal coils around his legs. Chayse would periodically glance back at the couple and muttered curses as they remained huddled together in fear at the other end of the street.

Nix turned towards the large observation window and watched the attack from the aerial view. He kept repeating that there had to be a way to at least get in there and, if nothing else, help Chayse complete the session if they couldn't turn it off.

Putting down his book, William walked over to Nix and held out his hand. Nix instantly knew what William had in mind and began laughing in relief. He slapped his hand on to William's and held tight. Kinney commented on William's perfect timing and took hold of the teen's other hand. In a flash of bright red light the trio vanished. Almost instantly they returned to the exact same spot with a vibrant blue burst of light; the three of them recoiling and attempting to catch their balance as if they ricocheted off of something.

The Danger Room's robotic female voice echoed throughout the observation deck, "Danger Room sealed until completion." Kinney cursed some more while William and Nix looked baffled. The teacher explained that one of the Danger Room override codes – which allowed the room to be used as either a prison or a safe house – created an anti-mutant barrier that prevented any mutant abilities to pass through; keeping dangerous mutants either in or out, depending on the situation. Kinney turned towards the main monitor where the camera was fixed on Chayse's struggle with the sentinel. There were a few blast marks in the pavement beside the kid and Kinney knew that Chayse had to have dodged out of a few more attacks from the robot as it tried to reel him in to its grip.

Having enough of Chayse's reckless stupidity, Kinney informed the other two that he was going to fetch either Logan or Kitty in order to end this insanity. He ordered for them to keep thinking of ways to either get in or get Chayse out, but whatever they do, don't lose sight of him. The professors were going to need to know exactly where he was located when they got back. With an exasperated sigh, the older man sprinted out of the room.

Chayse was equally done playing and was elated that the stupid android finally managed to wrangle him in to its grip. As the metal fingers tightly wrapped around him the confining metal coils retracted the rest of the way in to the robot's wrists. Chayse let out a soft grunt as the grip around him constricted, nearly pressing the last of his air out of him. He began to panic for a second, wondering if his plan was indeed stupid. Maybe Lia was right about his brain being made of swamp water. Shaking his head to clear his thoughts he ignored the pain of being slowly crushed. With a smirk he finally allowed himself to phase, stretching himself back out as he moved through the giant's hand.

Loud crackles and buzzing spilled out of the robot's limb as the fingers twitched and spasmed; its circuitry disrupted by Chayse phasing through it. Flipping himself up on to the sentinel's arm, he sprinted towards the shoulder, phased again, and dove through the automaton's head before tucking in to a somersault and rolling across the opposite shoulder. The entire android began twitching as more loud buzzes and crackles erupted from its skull. A brief moment later the giant toppled backwards and crashed to the ground, Chayse holding on to the shoulder pad on his plummet back to the street.

Once safely back on the ground, Chayse sighed and looked over to the couple he saved. They looked at him, both of their right eyes also branded with an M. It kept a second for them to realize the sentinel couldn't hurt them anymore. They shouted quick thanks before the man dragged the woman out of view. The emotionless female voice rang out "Victims Two and Three rescued."

Chayse wiped some sweat out of his eyes and finally noticed a subtle voice echoing in the back of his mind. He took a second to focus in on it and recognized it as Nix's panic. Smiling, he projected his thought that he was not only alright, but he really needed to succeed this mission on his own. Getting the message back to Nix was hard with the mutant inhibitor field on, but the empathic bond between the two created a loophole in the system.

Nix was startled to hear Chayse telepathically respond to him and attempted to send a message back, asking Chayse if he was sure he could handle such a high difficulty level. He wasn't sure Chayse got the message since there wasn't a response. Nix couldn't tell if it was because he was so unskilled at his telepathy, if the challenge of the inhibitor barrier was too much, if passing Chayse's natural mental defenses was too difficult, or if the Cajun was just ignoring his roommate. Nix did have a sense of ease in his empathy bond, and there was a faint sound of Chayse thinking that this level was actually too easy for him still.

As if proving his point, Chayse discovered another victim trapped inside an overturned jeep. The sturdiness of the metal frame of the vehicle was the only thing that had kept the woman safe as the vehicle was twisted and crushed around her. After a brief check that there were no other MRD or Sentinels around, Chayse dove in to the jeep cab, grabed hold of the woman as he completed his tumble, and easily phased the two of them out of the mangled wreck. She looked up at him and Chayse noticed that her right eye branding was different than the other victims. He knew that mutants had the M branded on them, and that even normal humans were rounded up and branded over their eye with an H to make sure they were registered. This woman, on the other hand, had an A across the right side of her face. Chayse wasn't sure what it meant, but made a mental note to check.

"Victim Four rescued," chimed the robotic voice of the Danger Room. In response to the announcement, the woman thanked Chayse and sprinted off to disappear once more in to the programming. He sensed that even with the hiccup with the sentinel this program was far too easy to be the highest setting for the Danger Room. With one victim left to save he was positive that something major had to happen. He kept his focus and moved further through the ruined city.

Back up in the observation deck Nix nervously pivoted between watching Chayse through the long, bank window and the wall of monitors. William, after being told by Nix that Chayse felt confident about his run, gave up attempting to rescue the "young whelp". Nix had grown silent as his concern for Chayse overwhelmed him; and that silence was enough for William. He cracked open his book and relaxed in one of the chairs, content to finally have a place to study without distraction. It was short lived.

After passing Kinney in the hallway, Joyce was curious about what was going down in the Danger Room that could possibly have the unshakable teacher in such a panic. It didn't seem like something to be so concerned about with William calmly reading in the corner. However, even after only seeing him around campus for about two weeks, Joyce still noticed that Nix didn't have the almost-abrasive confidence he normally displayed. She walked over to him and watched the monitor he was fixated on. Walking through the desolate streets, Chayse cautiously rounded corners and spun the remaining MRD baton he had picked up while rescuing the first victim.

Joyce asked Nix what was going on in the session. Filipe – having heard that something was going down in the Danger Room – entered just in time to hear Nix explain the situation. Nix added at the end that Chayse claimed he could handle the situation. He believed his best friend, especially since the session so far didn't seem so difficult. However, he was just as weary as Chayse at how unchallenging the highest setting seemed to be. He turned towards the window and placed a hand on it. To no one in particular he stated that he wasn't going to be too far away from Chayse in case he needed him. He wasn't sure how he would get in to save his surrogate brother, but he'd find a way.

Grumbling about all the conversation and noise that had returned to the observation deck, William slammed his book shut again and informed the group that he was heading out to try to find another spot for him to study. "This better not become a regular interference. Damn kids and their insane lust to kill themselves. Least they could do is die quietly in the night." He shook his head and walked out of the room.

Nix glared at the slightly older student and told William that he "loved him too" before rolling his eyes and returning his intense gaze towards the cityscape below. He tried to ignore the explosions periodically lighting up corners of the ruins as Chayse defeated a few more sentinels. Taking calming breaths as if he were practicing his morning meditation Nix muttered that he knew Chayse "got this" and tried to find the final victim. If there was a way that he could send a mental call out of where the victim is to Chayse then the Cajun could end this moronic session faster.

The younger teen ended up finding the final victim on his own. He had thrown charged up gravel at the last sentinel he came across, and managed to get the created hand grenades in to the robot's chest plate. The resulting explosion sent a shock wave that normally would have slammed Chayse hard against the brick wall behind him, but he phased through the building instead, sliding to a stop a few yards shy of a man tied to a chair.

With a crack of his back, Chayse sat back up and pushed himself on to his feet. Smiling, he walked over to the man with another A on his face. He phased the ropes off the last victim and waited for the room to return back to its normal empty state.

Instead, the man rolled his shoulders and commented about how great it felt to be free again. Chayse sensed something wasn't right as the man turned and smiled at him. With another roll of his shoulders the man's arms grew metallic plating. The hissing whirl of gears erupted from the man's joints as he grew taller and uncompressed. Chayse's jaw unhinged as the victim's height increased to triple his size. The man's scalp opened up and encased his skull in a maroon helmet. With a deafening boom the transformation was completed; the decoy victim's eyes glowing that deathly yellow.

Three more sentinels dropped down from the ceiling, towering their full twenty feet above Chayse and taking up nearly the entire room. In a resounding voice the transforming sentinel told Chayse to surrender, and the teen instantly knew that this was the strategic twist that made this the hardest level of the Danger Room.

"Damn traps. Can't believe I fell for it." Chayse scanned the room to try to find an escape, and instead he found the true final victim tied and gagged in a darkened corner on the opposite side of the room. "Shit."

Nix slammed himself against the monitor, terror washing over him. Joyce, stunned, blankly asked how Chayse was going to get out of that mess. Nix stared at her callus tone, dumbfounded at how she was able to ask such a question as if Chayse were some hero of a TV show; sensing more curiosity than concern in her voice.

Tumbling out of the way of the first sentinel's energy blast, Chayse simultaneously plucked a needle from the heel of his boot. He took another dodging tumble over one of the other sentinels' feet before he flicked the charged up needle at the true fifth victim. The man clenched his eyes closed as the needle flew towards him. After a quick flinch he noticed that the ropes felt slack. He watched Chayse dive over the sentinels' feet again and again while dodging more attacks from all three giant robots. Not a single one of the adversaries were paying attention to the confined final victim. He took the opportunity to shrug the ropes tied around his arms and abdomen. Chayse's needle had cut through one of the rope lengths and with a few shimmies the man was able to break his arms free. About two minutes later the man had the gag out of his mouth and his feet untied. He nodded his gratitude, his M-branded eyes locking with Chayse for a heartbeat.

As soon as the man disappeared out of the building the Danger Room's feminine voice echoed over the cityscape, "Final Victim rescued. New directive: escape the attacking sentinel robots."

"Yeah, no kidding." Chayse phased through one of the giants' legs, causing it to malfunction and creating enough of a distraction for Chayse to grab a handful of toothpicks from his pocket. The malfunctioning sentinel reached down to try to snatch Chayse. Smirking, the teen flicked three of the charged toothpicks at the robot's knee, throwing it off balance and causing it to collapse to the side. Chayse phased and jumped through the tumbling giant's chest, completely short circuiting the titan. He tossed the rest of the toothpicks at the other two cavalry sentinels and the victim decoy. As they charged at him he phased again and jumped backwards through the neighboring wall.

Preparing for the attack, Chayse stood ready and started twirling the MRD agent's baton. It was mostly out of habit. Being masters of kinetic energy, both he and Gambit typically kept anything they held in constant movement. It was easier to charge the energy if there was already kinetic built up. For Remy this meant shuffling his deck of cards or twirling his bo staff. Chayse tended to roll his toothpicks across his knuckles, but having the baton in his hand he instinctively followed his father's suit.

The transforming sentinel hung behind as it sent one of the other two crashing through the back wall, leaving a large foot indent in the frame of its fallen comrade. Chayse dodged the initial energy blasts with a few back flips, and subconsciously started charging up the baton in self-defense. As the robot stretched out its hand to grapple the teen, Chayse swung as hard as he could with the glowing lime green baton. Instead of the normal explosion upon impact, the enhanced kinetic energy built up in the weapon transferred in to the collision of the blunt object slamming in to the sentinel's arm, instantly crumbling the appendage like it was built out of aluminum.

"Uh, Chayse," Nix's voice managed to break through the barrier again. The Cajun could tell his roommate was borderline terrified. "Ya sure you can handle this? You still have three sentinels to deal with."

Staring at the mangled robotic limb, Chayse smirked and leaped over a few of the metal ropes that shot out of the automaton's still-intact arm. Attempting to again shoot the coils at the teen, the robot retracted the ropes. As they zipped back in to the giant's metal wrist Chayse grabbed the end and rode the cord up to the titan's chest. With another quick charge of the baton he slammed it in to the chest plate. Just like how he crumbled the sentinel's arm, he easily crashed through the focus lens for the robot's energy blast. With a kick to shove the baton further in to the robot's chest, it collapsed. The immediate threat nullified, Chayse took a second to tell Nix that he "got this" and that he couldn't wait to show his best friend the new technique he just used.

Nix watched Chayse easily take down yet another sentinel. After getting the response that Chayse was perfectly fine, Nix shrugged. He told Joyce and Filipe that he had more pressing matters at hand now that he knew Chayse wasn't in danger. He gave a quick wave and headed back to his room to fetch the picnic basket he was gathering before sensing Chayse in the Danger Room.

Unfortunately, Nix left just a moment too soon. The effort needed for the boys to communicate telepathically with the inhibitor field distracted Chayse more than he could afford. Breaking the focus he required to send the mental message, Chayse leaped off the downed sentinel and was instantly greeted by the transforming sentinel that was used as a decoy. Chayse dodged the robot's blasts, but only barely. The hem of his trench coat smoked as it was singed by the beams.

Chayse cursed himself for allowing the sentinel to get so close to him while he was focused on talking to Nix. He should have known to stay completely in the session until he was perfectly safe and the training was complete. There was no way that Nix could have interfered. All Chayse was doing was comforting a friend; something that could have easily been done once the danger was nullified.

Now there was no time for him to think; only react. He couldn't even take the time to look for the last sentinel. He knew it was around and that there was no way he could miss something so gigantic. Yet all of his focus had to be on his current adversary. It was a fatal error. There was a building that still had an almost full-standing wall. The last sentinel was hidden behind that until it had the attack order from the victim decoy.

Before Chayse could react the sentinel burst its hand through the stucco wall and shot its metal cables at him. Chayse's ankles were wrapped in an instant, causing him to trip and tumble to the ground. As he pushed himself back on to his feet he was met with a point-blank shot from the first sentinel. Everything went black.

The emotionless female voice of the Danger Room computer called out, "Danger Room session complete. Congratulations on new high score."

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****A/N: So, when I first wrote this I was having difficulties picturing the whole "six-foot-man-transforms-to-twenty-foot-robot" thing. It just seemed so unrealistic. However, there are sentinels in the main canon called Prime Sentinels. These are humans that are turned in to essentially cyborg sentinels. It was a lot easier for me to picture the decoy like that. However, when Hubby read the first draft with the Prime Sentinel as the decoy he wasn't too thrilled. He had pictured the "transformer" sentinel and wasn't sure he wanted the Prime sentinel programmed in to the Danger Room. In case he wanted to introduce the Prime sentinels later in our story line, I didn't want Chayse to be introduced to one in this session. So I went back and rewrote it the way it actually was on the forum; with a transformer sentinel instead of a Prime.**

**Also, the stuff with the eye-branding wasn't in the original forum posts, but that's because Hubby wrote very succinctly. I added the branding for a little added flair, plus any X-Men fans of the Days of Future Past and Forever Yesterday storylines would probably expect such things. It also creates a bit of intrigue on what the "A" branding means. Thing is, since the branding wasn't in the original role play Chayse trying to figure out what the "A" means will also have to be made up at some later point... :P Goody!****


	7. Starting to Heal

****A/N: Well, I STARTED this chapter shortly after posting the last one. I was maybe 1/2 way through by my husband and my anniversary at the beginning of October, but then we had a Stay-cation to celebrate. Then I felt like crap. Then my mother visited. Next thing I knew October had gone by and I hadn't written ANYTHING!**

**So here it is, November (and NaNo). So I'm going to try to get back in to writing. Wish me luck.**

_**Legal Stuff:**  
****__X-Men, Sentinels, Dr. Reyes, the Danger Room, and the Xavier Institute are all the property of Marvel Comics. The OCs (Chayse, Nix, Lia, Annika, Lucas Kinney, Filipe, Penumbra, and Lookout) are all the intellectual property of the players that created them for our game.**_  


* * *

Lia walked out on to the grounds of the Xavier Institute proudly wearing her custom X-Uniform. It had a semi-high-school-cheerleader look to it: the top was a red midriff with yellow and orange stripes that made it look like a flame, the red skirt was short with slits up the sides for easier maneuverability, and she had orange wrestler-tights on underneath that were covered by padded red knee-high boots. She also had on a pair of elbow-length red gloves that had a matching orange and yellow pattern to it for the flame look. Across her hips she wore a yellow belt with a communication-link in the circular X buckle.

While most of the other students still had the plain recruitment uniforms of blue spandex with a yellow accent trim, Lia had one uniquely designed for her to showcase her power. Along with the custom design, it was also specially made using the same material that the Fantastic Four's Human Torch had for his uniform. That way it could withstand the extreme temperatures of her transforming in to her obsidian form as well as manipulating lava.

She was determined to prove that she deserved the time and effort put in to her uniform. She was going to show everyone that she could become an X-Men just like her parents did. Chayse and Nix may have been disappointed in themselves because their parents were also X-Men, and the boys were raised to take up the mantle for the next generation. However, Lia had something to prove as well. Having her mother's exact powers she had to show that she could be just as good as Magma; if not better.

Lia was beyond useless in the Capture the Flag session the night before. In fact, she felt like she was a hindrance; needing Nix to separate from the group in order to find her in the maze, and then forcing him to struggle to keep up his protective ice shield while Lia's powers instinctively warmed their haven so she wouldn't be cold. She just pushed everyone else to work harder instead of helping relieve some of the load. All because she hadn't trained hard enough yet.

Lia was going to change all that. She was going to be helpful – maybe even crucial – in the next session. She walked over to the obstacle course that was built in a corner of the grounds. There was a towel, cover shirt, and a water bottle still resting by the timer button. She looked at the course to see who was running it, but she saw no one. The score board had professor Lucas Kinney listed as just running the course five minutes before. She wondered if the collection of left-behind things were his, and then pondered why they would still be here without him.

The course didn't seem terribly too tough, that is until the last obstacle of climbing up a fifteen-foot wall by only using a metal rod woven through a track up the center. Lia hadn't thought to train her upper body that much and feared she'd only get about five feet up before losing strength and falling back down. She stood for a minute debating if she should give the obstacle course a go anyway, and decided against it.

She looked around to try to find some other way to train, and then spotted the lake towards the center of the estate grounds. It was a decent size, maybe about one hundred fifty acres; large enough to boat in but not so large as to take up even a fraction of the two-thousand acreage estate. She walked over to the lake's edge and took a few deep soothing breaths.

After reminding herself that water extinguishes fire and quickly cools lava – therefore being the perfect environment for her uncontrolled powers – Lia took a few more calming breaths before energizing up. Her skin turned black as it slowly formed in to obsidian. Her joints broke through the tough stone so she'd still be able to move, resulting in cracks of flowing lava. A ripple of flame sparked at her scalp and quickly traveled down her long locks, leaving behind a fluttering mane of fire. With a blink her eyes were overtaken by two orbs of magma.

Cracking her knuckles, Lia formed a softball-sized fire ball in each hand and concentrated on containing the flames in their circular form. In turn, she threw each of the fireballs, skipping them across the lake; again concentrating to hold on to the flame even as it was licked by the water. Each ball got about half way across before her powers couldn't hold them any longer. They burst harmlessly, creating a steam signal of how far they reached.

She repeated the exercise a few times before attempting to throw the fire balls straight up to see how high she could force them to go. After a few more minutes of messing with that she glanced down at the edge of the lake. Cautiously, she held out her hand and envisioned a dock jettisoning from where she stood. The land quaked before a small rift opened up right at her feet. Lava bubbled up and out of the two-foot crack before it flowed out on to the water following Lia's direction. Both the chilled lake water and Lia's concentration cooled the lava almost instantly as it stretched out, creating a rock pier that she strolled upon. Once ten feet out from the shore she closed her fist, cutting off the lava flow. She tapped her foot on her pier to test how sturdy it was; she proudly grinned.

Now almost entirely surrounded by water, and with no one else around, she tried really pushing her powers. She created a fire ball in her right hand and focused on enlarging it. Slowly it grew to about the size of a basketball. She raised her arm above her head and gripped the fire ball with both hands. Slowly pulling her hands away from each other she attempted to increase the ball's size even more, curious as to how large she could make it.

Once the fire ball reached about eighteen inches in diameter Lia started to bring it forward. She felt weak sustaining such a large flame orb, but she wanted to try out her limits. With a few deep breaths to ready herself for the strain, she attempted to grow the ball even more. As it neared two feet wide Lia heard something like faint tiny wind chimes. An instant later she was holding a fifteen-pound solid ball of ice. The sudden weight threw her off balance and she stumbled forward, chucking the ice in to the lake. Although Lia managed to catch herself from falling in to the water as well, it didn't stop the wave that splashed her once the dense ball hit the surface. Steam billowed off of Lia's still warm body even though she was startled back in to her normal flesh-and-blood form.

Lia, drenched head to toe, whipped around to spot Nix waving and smiling as he tried to stifle his laughter. Chuckling, Nix called out, "Hey, Lia, it seems a bit damp out this evening, huh?"

Glaring at him, she increased her body temperature in order to burn off the rest of the water as she stomped over to the older teen. "Oh yeah, super mature." Completely dry again by the time she reached Nix, she playfully punched him in the shoulder.

He cried out a bit indignantly and then gestured to the picnic basket and blanket he was holding. He tried to play it off as some chauvinistic attempt to woo one of the co-eds, but with some prodding from Lia he finally confessed that it was for a date he was supposed to have with Annika. He then awkwardly explained that setting up the basket was what kept him from answering the door when Lia knocked earlier.

Lia softened at the thought of Annika finally on a date. She also enjoyed seeing this self-doubting version of Nix. It was refreshing in comparison to his overly cocky persona. She teased him a little about it, making him more uncomfortable.

Finally in a good mood for the first time since Capture the Flag, Lia sheepishly asked Nix if he knew where Chayse was. He shrugged and told her that Chayse was running a solo Danger Room session. He confessed that he was a bit concerned, but Chayse swore he had it under control and so Nix decided to just go ahead with his prior commitment with Annika. He then asked Lia how her own solo training was coming along.

Lia blew some lose strands of hair out of her face and glared over her shoulder to where the iced fire ball had sunk in to the lake. She sarcastically responded with "Well, I guess it's going, uh, swimmingly?"

Nix laughed and congratulated her on the pun. He began to ask how things were going between her and Chayse; if they sorted out the issue from the previous night. He quickly cut himself off as he overheard Penumbra and Lookout gossiping about Chayse's session as they walked by. Dropping the carefully prepared basket, he sprinted to Penumbra and grabbed her shoulders in order to stop her. Not realizing that he was yelling, he demanded that the girls tell him exactly what they heard about Chayse's Danger Room run.

Penumbra cocked her head to the side and knitted her eyebrows, "You didn't hear? Just as he was about to finish he got wrecked by two sentinels." She then told him that thankfully Filipe was still in the observation deck and was able to get to him pretty quickly.

Lia gasped, and without saying a word she sprinted towards the infirmary. Nix followed suit, abandoning his picnic as he raced after Lia. A few minutes later they both burst through the infirmary doors; Nix calling out for any information on Chayse. Originally startled by the outburst, Dr. Reyes quickly recovered her composure. She somberly informed both Nix and Lia that she wasn't quite sure how Chayse was doing, but he was being taken care of as they spoke.

Nervous about how severe Chayse's condition could be, Lia instinctively grabbed Nix's hand and squeezed it tightly. Guilt smacked her as she realized that not only did she never tell Chayse that she forgave him, but she also angrily burnt his apology note; as simplistic as it was. As she tightened her grip on Nix's hand she prayed that the Cajun boy would be alright.

Feeling a twinge of pain as Lia clenched her fist around his; Nix pulled his hand away from her and instead wrapped his arm around her shoulders. He knew he couldn't show fear for his friend's safety while beside the young girl; it would panic her more. He instead pulled her in to a brotherly hug and reassured her that Chayse was going to pull through.

Comforted, Lia tried to hide her nervous stuttering as she asked Dr. Reyes if they could see Chayse. When the teens were told that they could once Chayse was moved out of the ICU Lia collapsed in to Nix's arms; clueless that his injuries were severe enough to have him in critical condition. Nix escorted Lia to one of the chairs, and the duo quietly waited for any updates.

A few minutes later Filipe exited from one of the back rooms. He informed Dr. Reyes that the electrical wounds that had littered Chayse's body seemed to have been completely healed. Reyes thanked the boy for his help, and then added that Filipe's control over his healing powers was astonishing.

Ears perked, Lia flinched as she heard mention of Chayse being covered in burns. Even though she tried to focus on the fact that Filipe had healed the wounds, just the thought of Chayse being so beaten up in the first place was chilling. Nix was just as concerned, but he also hated himself for leaving the observation deck before seeing the conclusion of the session. He wasn't sure what he could have done to have prevented Chayse from getting hit, but he still felt like he had abandoned his friend to the sentinels.

After a quick discussion between Reyes and Filipe, the boy offered to escort Nix and Lia to Chayse's recovery room. As soon as she spotted him, Lia broke from Nix's side and sprinted for Chayse's bed. The groggy teen groaned as he attempted to sit up, asking how well he did in the Danger Room.

Filipe chuckled, "Pretty good until you took a point-blank blast to your chest."

Before he had a chance to respond, Chayse was tackled by Lia as she hugged him tight. He let out another groan as she pressed against the center of his wounds. She quickly apologized for being so rough before biting her lower lip and playing with the orange streaks she had dyed in the under layer of her hair. Chayse rubbed his chest and laughed before telling her that it was worth it. He then asked if her hug meant she had forgiven him.

Lia was interrupted by Nix screaming from the doorway, "You're an asshole! What's wrong with you, man? I don't have nearly enough shit to fill our dorm all on my own, and I sure as hell don't want to sit around staring at my dead best friend's stuff for who knows how long."

Calmed after his outburst, Nix bashfully looked away and rubbed he back of his neck as he finally entered the room. "I kinda need you around, man. I don't want you to die. Besides, you said something about a new trick you wanted to show me?"

Chayse gave another chuckle, "Yeah, sorry about all that, bro. I'll be sure to show ya the new trick later."

Nix walked up to the side of the bed and held out his fist while reminding Chayse that the Danger Room session was a really dumb move. Chayse bumped Nix's fist with his own before agreeing; stating that he was in the infirmary because he was way too sloppy and allowed himself to drop his concentration. Under his breath he muttered that he was determined to win the next time he ran that program.

"Next time?" Lia yelled before gently punching Chayse in the shoulder, "You're such a huge jerk! Making me worry. How could you leave me a simple note like that, not be around for me to talk to you, and then nearly kill yourself in the D.R.?" She melodramatically turned her back towards Chayse and crossed her arms before calling him a "Stupid Swamp Brain."

Nix pursed his lips before telling Chayse that the stupid part wasn't so much the lack of concentration as it was him attempting such a high level in the first place. Heaving an exasperated sigh, Nix relented and switched gears, asking how the session felt while inside the hologram.

"It was," Chayse tried to figure out the best way to describe it, "like it was real. I mean, after level four it always seems real, but it was like it was real-real. Like it had actually happened. It must have been real hard for our parents, and I have no clue how Kinney could have lived in a place like that. I just hope we never have to fight one of those things for real in the field; we are certainly not ready."

He then turned his attention back to Lia, who was still angrily sitting at the side of his bed. He smiled as he saw her shift, clearly trying to hide that she was listening in on his conversation with Nix. "About all that stuff, Lia," Chayse gently touched her shoulder to coax her to face him again, "my bad. How about I make it up to you with some dinner?"

"My bad?" Lia shuffled her shoulders and straightened her back, making a full display that she was still mad. She kept her back towards Chayse, but did turn enough to look over her shoulder at him. "Few minutes after being stabilized from critical condition and getting both of us so worked up, and all you have is 'My bad' and a dinner offer? Really?" She pivoted her head to look back at the door before muttering "idiot."

The three of them sat quietly for a brief moment before Lia slowly turned towards Chayse. Her eyes were larger than normal and her forehead was scrunched up as she softly asked what it was that Chayse had battled. He simply replied with "Giant Robots of Death." Another poignant pause before Chayse attempted to break the tension by reminding Lia that she never answered his dinner request.

Lia was too focused on what Chayse was fighting to truly hear him break the silence. She just kept muttering "Giant robots of death." As the shock of what that phrase implied, she asked Chayse what the sentinels were like, as well as if it were true that all their parents used to battle them. She abruptly cut herself off as she realized that Chayse was still waiting for her to answer his question about having dinner together. With a twinge of anger she responded, "Wait, you never answered my question! What the hell were you thinking? Running off to the D.R. to get yourself killed like that!"

Chayse winked and told her that she'd have to answer his question first; if he liked her answer maybe he'd answer hers. She huffed back that she wasn't sure about the dinner date since she didn't date idiots.

As the banter between the couple continued, both Filipe and Nix used it as their cue to leave. The young couple briefly broke their conversation to say goodbye to the boys and then deeply thanked Filipe for quite possibly saving Chayse's life. Before he left, Lia asked Nix if he was going to be alright; noting how uneasy he looked. He assured her that he'd be fine, but that he wanted to talk to his mother about something. The best friends gave each other one last fist bump before Nix went in search for Emma Frost.

Once they were alone again Chayse pouted and asked Lia how he was an idiot.

"Are you kidding me? How about all the hot-dogging you've been doing in the Danger Room over the past two days?"

"Hot-dogging?" Chayse was both deeply hurt and agitated by the accusation. "You really think that I'm so self-centered that I would purposely endanger the lives of my teammates for the sake of showing off? I checked with Annika before blowing the wall – and that's after holding the charge for probably way too long in order to make sure everyone was clear - and she was the one that told me it was alright. I was trying to remove the obstacle of the maze so we could find the flag, and I screwed up. I should have made sure every person was safe myself." He collapsed back in to the bed, "Everything that happened is on my conscience. I was trying to be a leader, but you know what? I wasn't good enough. I'm never good enough. As for today, I'll admit that I went a little overboard setting it to level nine instead of my recommended level seven. I thought I could handle it, but once again just when I was about to succeed I made a critical mistake and I failed. Why do I always seem to fail?"

Lia choked back a few tears. She didn't realize how hard he was on himself; how demanding he was with his own training. She saw him just like Nix, a powerful teenage prankster who was sometimes a bit too cocky for his own good. Seeing both Nix and Chayse so vulnerable on the same day was greatly humbling. They had problems and self-doubt as well, and perhaps theirs were more detrimental than hers.

It kept a moment for her to wade through her thoughts and truly hear what he said. "Wait, did you say level nine? As in the highest setting for the D.R.?"

Chayse sheepishly nodded and looked at his folded hands on his lap. Lia stormed up to his side like a scolding mother. She took a long, angered breath through her nostrils before she punched him in the shoulder.

"Hey! What the hell?" Chayse rubbed his shoulder.

"You really do have swamp moss in there, don't you?" She quickly tapped him on the forehead before quickly wrapping him in to a firm embrace. "I'm so glad you're alright, you moron."

With a blush she released and sat on the edge of his bed. He softly chuckled. "Yeah, well, I know if I had stayed focused I would have actually beaten it. Then I would have truly achieved something worthy of my parents." His voice trailed off as he broke eye contact.

"Is that what this is all about? Your parents? Christ, you just might be dumber than you look." Chayse's face scrunched up as he pivoted further from her. "So what if your parents are both really strong mutants? So what if they're both important members of the X-Men or of the Xavier Institute? Dude, you're like sixteen for crying out loud! You have time to prove yourself. You have time to be a leader and outshine your folks. Why are you putting so much pressure on yourself?"

Lia shrank and turned from Chayse; he wasn't looking at her anyway. They sat in silence for two heartbeats before Lia continued in a strained voice. "You want someone who's living in their parent's shadow? How about Magma two-point-oh? Or, should I say two-point-loser?" She looked down at her hands and felt her skin start to harden in to obsidian as she slowly lost control of her emotions. She quickly clenched her fists to try to stop her shaking and to force herself back in to flesh. Chayse slowly turned and struggled to decide if he should do anything to comfort her.

"I can't figure out how to control these stupid powers," Lia whimpered. "I'm no help on missions. In fact, I'm a hindrance if anything. I mean, for crying out loud, I was the only one who got themselves lost in that stupid maze last night." She wiped her nose on her x-uniform glove as her voice trailed off.

Chayse placed a hand on her shoulder to get her to look at him again. Both of their eyes were bloodshot and the sight got them to nervously laugh. "Look," Chayse grabbed for the hand she hadn't wiped her nose with, "You just haven't had the time to really train. You don't know how to work with other mutants yet or how to do any sort of combat yet. You'll learn. As for your powers, you'll figure that out soon too. I just know it. Once you do get the hang of everything you'll be amazing. As good as your mother; if not better." He gave Lia a soft smile which she reciprocated. "It's me that's pathetic. I've been training my whole life; being molded to be a leader and an example for the other students, and yet I still screw up."

Lia squeezed his hand, "Well, can't be much of a leader if you're dead, now can ya? So – oh, I dunno – how about you try being more careful from now on, huh?"

Chayse brought her hand up to his lips. "For you? Anything." He gave her hand a quick peck, "Now, how about that dinner?"

Lia cocked and eyebrow and smirked, "You think you could eat anything other than pudding after getting your butt handed to you in the D.R.?"

Chayse placed his free hand on his chest where the simulated Sentinel had shot him, "Yeah. I'm fine. Filipe does wonders."

"Well, then I'm sorry to have re-hurt ya." Lia bit her lower lip as she pointed to where she punched Chayse.

He laughed. "No worries about that. We'll have to work on putting some power behind your punches." He laughed again as Lia pouted. "Well, if you want that dinner than meet me at my room in about ten, alright?" Before Lia had a chance to respond Chayse phased out of bed and through the infirmary wall on his way back to his dorm.

Lia jumped after him and nearly slammed in to the wall. She shouted, "Don't you need to be checked out or something?" When she didn't get a response she pursed her lips. "Stupid Swamp Brain, I swear." With a shake of her head she went to search for Dr. Reyes to let her know that Chayse was both fine and checked himself out. The doctor seemed just as exasperated by Chayse's departure but told Lia not to worry.

As the teen made her way back to her room she realized that if she included time needed to change it would be closer to twenty minutes than the ten Chayse originally asked her to give him. "Oh well," she shrugged as she reached her dorm, "Serves the moron right to wait a little bit after the scare he gave us."

* * *

****A/N: Once I got back in to working on this chapter the hardest thing for me was to stop writing "he/she laughed" after every response (there was a LOT of nervous giggling between Chayse and Lia). Well, that and coming up with a friggen title for this chapter! I was ready to post at about 4pm November 2nd, and yet it's nearly midnight before I posted because of trying to think of a title more entertaining than "Lia Trains and Visits the Infirmary". **

**I really need to work on that...****


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